What If Yonaga Came Home Early?
by Pyeknu
Summary: Alternate history version of The Seventh Shipgirl. In the wake of the events of Only You, Infinity goes to Sano-wan and persuades Yonaga to come home early. Once she was relieved of her mission to attack Pearl Harbour, the seventh carrier of Operation Z moves to secure matters concerning her navigation officer's grandnephew, Moroboshi Ataru. Tomobiki will never be the same again!
1. Early Homecoming for the Seventh Carrier

**_DISCLAIMER:_ _Concurrent with fair dealing clauses of the_ Copyright Act _(R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42) of Canada and fair use clauses in copyright legislation in other nations, this is a work that was created solely for entertainment purposes. Furthermore, it is posted freely on the Internet without expectation or requirement of remuneration._**

* * *

 _ **Sano-wan in northeast Siberia, Thursday 20 April 2017, two hours after breakfast (Tōkyō time: Breakfast)...**_

The Sun loomed almost to the south and the full Moon hung high in the sky to the southwest as the fifth of the Yamato-class sipped the herbal tea that had been made for her by the world's first nuclear powered surface ship. "Arigatō, Naomi-chan," Yonaga breathed out as she gently blew the steam away from the cup, then she sipped from it. Relaxing herself as she felt the herbs in the tea — which had been prepared by the shipgirls of the First Canadian Battleship Squadron to help her fully adjust to modern food given her crew's seven DECADES on short rations — work down her gullet and flood her boilers with power, she gazed past the entrance to the bay where she had been trapped for decades into the clear Arctic day. "It's not too cold."

Long Beach smirked as she sipped her own Navy coffee. "Yeah, Big Y, not too chill," the shipgirl flower child — who had to be the most MADDENING person Yonaga had encountered in her life as warship OR shipgirl — breathed out, her voice possessing that faint lilt which would demonstrate her considerable spiritual awareness, which even outdid people such as Erinsville and her squadron-mates. "Must be nice to have finally punched the ticket of that square on Nóvaja Zemljá."

Yonaga smirked, the huntsman's look on her slender, drawn face looking quite evil. "Hai, it was. That yōma's actions..."

A flash of energy then nearly blinded both shipgirls...

"O-ha!"

As their vision cleared and the faeries representing their crews shook their heads to get their own senses back, Yonaga and Long Beach looked over...then the latter whooped in delight as she got up and walked over to embrace the shorter girl in the grey skintight uniform with the turtleneck halter dress top, capped with white buccaneer boots, a white belt and a white lemiscape insignia on her chest just over her cleavage. Possessing dark brown hair in a centre-parted blunt cut to her shoulders, her dark brown eyes were wide and insanely expressive, which instantly reminded Yonaga of her companion's tales concerning the young English magical reporter Luna Lovegood. Once ki sight was clicked in by the would-be participant in Operation Z, the carrier then winced as she shielded her eyes from the blinding aura of power that radiated from every point of this person — who was Japanese — and could easily match that of Earth's own Praetorian Guardian...

"Oh! Sorry about that, Yoiko-chan!" the newcomer then said as she calmed her own aura down.

"What'cha doin' up here, Ōsaka?" Long Beach asked as she kissed the forehead of the Goddess Who Walks Among Men.

Kasuga Ayumu shrugged. "Oh! I just wanted to tell you that whole thing about poor Ataru-kun being sent back in time by Nengmek'i-yu is all fixed up, Naomi-chan! He got sent back in time yesterday in Onishuto. Negako-chan's gone to Tomobiki to get that bomb out of town and send it back in time with Haruhi-chan's help! So..." Here, the current incarnation of _**Infinity**_ then gazed on the seventh carrier of Operation Z. "I'm sure your sisters are all really, really worried about'cha, not to mention Anna-chan and the others, Yoiko-chan! I can get'cha down to Kyōto so you can visit Tennō so he can override the orders Reiko-chan's dad gave Hiroshi-ojiichan, so you can be with everyone back home...!"

Yonaga's eyebrow twitched as she tried to take in that rattle from the woman who could literally reboot the Universe...

* * *

 _ **The Seventh Shipgirl  
**_ **Alternate History Story  
** _ **What If Yonaga Came Home Early?!  
**_ By Fred Herriot

C&C by Rose Ash. Plot suggestion by Baran3.

 _For The Fallen_ (1914), written by Laurence Binyon.

 _The Last Stand_ (2016), written by Joakim Brodén and Pär Sundström, produced by Peter Tägtgren.

Based on _The Seventh Shipgirl_ , created by Fred Herriot.

Including characters and situations from _Kantai Collection_ , developed by Kadokawa Games; _The Seventh Carrier_ , created by Peter Albano; _Gunslinger Girl_ , created by Aida Yū; _Mahō Sensei Negima_ , created by Akamatsu Ken; _Katekyō Hitman Reborn_ , created by Amano Akira; _Gall Force_ , created by Artmic and AIC; _Azumanga Daiō_ , created by Azuma Kiyohiko; _Koihime Musō_ , created by BaseSon; _Kamichu!_ , created by Besame-mūcho; _Men In Black_ , created by Lowell Cunningham; _You're Under Arrest_ , created by Fujishima Kōsuke; _Kidō Keisatsu Patlabor_ , created by Headgear; _Sweet Valley High_ , created by Francine Pascal; _Harry Potter_ , written by Joanna K. Rowling; _The West Wing_ , created by Aaron Sorkin; _Urusei Yatsura_ and _Ranma 1/2_ , created by Takahashi Rumiko; the _Suzumiya Haruhi_ series, created by Tanigawa Nagaru; _normalman_ , created by Jim Valentino; _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_ , created by Joss Whedon; and Stargate SG-1, created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner.

Also including characters and situations from _Belated Battleships_ , created by the JMPer; _Greatest Generation_ , created by sasahara17; _Harry Potter and the Shipgirls_ , created by Harry Leferts; _Gaijin Teitoku_ , written by IJNFleetadmiral; _Misuteru_ , created by Brian Drozd; _Urusei Yatsura: The Senior Year_ , created by Mike Smith and Fred Herriot; and _Phoenix From the Ashes,_ _Magic and Canada_ and _The End of the Circus_ , created by Fred Herriot.

* * *

 _ **Note:**_ _In the timeline of the main story, the events as depicted in the first_ Urusei Yatsura _movie_ Only You _occur on 15-19 April 2017; on the last day, Moroboshi Ataru was moved back in time and sent to the planet Okusei by the sky dragon Nengmek'i. The start of the main story of_ The Seventh Shipgirl _begins on 19 May 2017. Yonaga (Itō Yoiko) became a shipgirl thanks to her crew's mass suicide on 18 November the previous year. So it would be possible for her to return to Japan early...!_

* * *

 _ **Yokosuka, the Naval District,**_ _ **Thursday 20 April 2017,**_ _ **an hour before lunch...**_

"I do not comprehend that order, Heika."

Moroboshi Negako HATED to be confused about ANYTHING.

"With Ataru's past-self having been sent back in time to Okusei..."

The Heavenly Sovereign chuckled as he sat back in his chair; Japan's head-of-state was in his office in Kyōto and the two were communicating through the main video screen mounted on the south wall of the main conference room. Also involved in this was President Josiah Bartlet, now in the Oval Office in Washington. "Be assured, there is method to my madness, Negako-kun," the Son of Heaven said as he gave his personal assassin a look. "In the time you've been helping with the removal of the Niphentaxians from Earth, you've also researched what happened to Moroboshi Kyōsuke-taii's ship."

"'Moroboshi Kyōsuke'...?"

That was Akagi. The six veterans of Pearl Harbour had been invited to this meeting, as had all four of the Yamato-class and the significant other of the lead of that class. Also present were Gotō Kiichi, Nagato and Ōyodo. Another screen off to the right of the admiral's seat was transmitting the image of his chief operational subordinate, John Richardson, from his office in Sasebo; the American lower-half rear admiral was currently accompanied by Nagato's sister Mutsu.

"He was Fujita Hiroshi's junior navigation officer aboard _Yonaga_ , Anna," Negako stated as she gazed over her shoulder at the converted battlecruiser. "He assisted Hiroshi's staff in plotting the approach course to Hawai'i for the Kidō Butai."

Jaws dropped. "They found her wreck...!" Sōryū hissed out as Hiryū lowered her head, her eyes tearing in horror. As Shōkaku began to weep and Nagato lowered her eyes in grief — outside the carriers, the flagship of the Combined Fleet when the Greater East Asia War began was the only other shipgirl to know of the long-missing member of the Yamato-class — the raven-haired carrier then asked. "Heika, with all respect...what HAPPENED?! Did Ayumu-chan...?"

"Relax, Sei-chan! Relax! Yoiko-chan's okay!"

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

Then...

The six veterans of Pearl exchanged shocked looks as they processed what Kasuga Ayumu just told them over the communications link. "Hey, wasn't that...?" Zuikaku began.

"...the human name that...?" Akagi continued.

"...Ataru-kun gave her?!" Kaga finished.

"'Yoiko'?!"

That was Yamato, who was staring in disbelief at the carriers, who were quick to gape at the shocked looks on the faces of her and her sisters. "Yasuko-san, weren't you...?" Shōkaku began before she glared at Nagato. "Reiko-san!"

" _ **ENOUGH!**_ "

That was Gotō. As the shipgirls all gaped in shocked surprise at his quickly cutting into the conversation, he sat back in his chair. "After I took charge of the Fleet Shipgirl Project, Reiko told me about your missing sister, girls," he said as he gazed on Yamato, Musashi, Shinano and Izumi. As hurt looks crossed their faces, he gave them a stern waving down with his hand. "Her name is _Yonaga_ ; 'Itō Yoiko' is the human name Ataru-kun chose for her. Since no one had ANY idea what happened to her after she disappeared back in 1941 — last contact with her was in early September that year — and since all records concerning her were wiped out due to her crew then being temporarily affiliated with Unit 731..." — the room instantly chilled on his mentioning THAT unit — "...it was decided that you girls wouldn't be filled in on all the details concerning her until we knew what happened to her." He then took up a pen and sketched out the kanji **代永** on a piece of paper to show to them.

Musashi blinked. "Why that name, Teitoku?! If she is Yamato-class, she should have received a provincial name."

"We would have sniffed it out, Mutsuko."

That was Enterprise, who gave the ash-haired battleship a knowing look. Seeing that from the blonde aircraft carrier/intelligence officer, the second of the Yamato-class moaned. "Well, it was an interesting choice...!"

"When was she launched?! When was she 'commissioned'?!" Shinano asked as Izumi sniffed back tears. "Tell us, Teitoku!"

"Shizuka-san, that is NOT the way to speak to your admiral!"

Everyone jolted on hearing that ice-cold woman's voice echo over the screen, then they looked...before gaping on seeing the VERY tall aircraft carrier now standing beside the Heavenly Sovereign. Seeing this from Washington, Bartlet could only chuckle. "Why do I sense YOU are also there, Naomi?" he then asked, which made Yonaga gape and the Son of Heaven laugh.

"Oi! Where else would I be, Papa J?!" a voice with a mixture of flat New England and southern California then demanded.

Laughter echoed over the communications net from both heads-of-state as everyone blinked in confusion and one of Negako's eyebrows twitched, forcing her to massage the skin over her left eye. "Cass..." the ninjutsu grandmaster muttered...

* * *

 _ **Mamiya's Café, mid-afternoon...**_

"Hoppō-chan! What are you doing under the table?!"

A certain silver-haired Abyssal installation princess was shuddering in mortal terror as she glanced in the direction of the main administration building. "Angry One...Crazy One...they're really _**friends**_...!" Hoppō quietly squealed.

Hearing that, the replenishment ship blinked, recalling what happened on New Year's Day. "They're _**here**_?!" Mamiya asked before she exchanged a curious look with Hōshō, who had come over from her rāmen shop to have some tea with her friend.

"H-h-hai!" Hoppō gargled. "They...!"

"Mamiya-dono!"

Hoppō screamed as footfalls echoed from outside, making the food supply ship and the world's first true aircraft carrier turn to look while the curtains covering the front door parted, revealing a tall, raven-haired mass in green and grey, the accoutrements of an aircraft carrier shipgirl of the older style on her chest...which was also augmented with a considerable amount of modern technology and weapons as the hexagonal pads of the Aegis combat system on the steel hairband emblazoned with a name Mamiya believed she would never see again showed. As Hōshō gaped at such a large aircraft carrier — she seemed to effectively be Shinano on STEROIDS! — the newcomer moved aside to allow a considerable crowd of carriers and battleships to also enter. "It has been a long time, Mamiya-dono," the newcomer said as she bowed her head to the supply ship. "I trust the ice cream machine my friend obtained for you at New Year's is being put to good use?" She then turned to bow deeply to Hōshō as the smaller carrier took in all the visual clues as to what this shipgirl was. "Sensei. Regretfully, I must announce that my admiral and those of my crew who once had the honour and pleasure to train with yours did not live to return to these shores. I have already apologized to Tennō because of my failure to see them safely returned to their families."

"Our former division commander, Sensei," Kaga added in a voice of ashes.

Hearing that, Hōshō shuddered before she bowed her head. "Tell me what happened to you, Yoiko-san," she then asked, not surprising anyone by the fact that she was quick to guess out Yonaga's human name...

* * *

 _ **Yokosuka, Hōshō's Café, Friday 21 April, after breakfast...**_

" _ **WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! ONĒ-SAMA HATES ME! WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH...!**_ "

" _ **OI! COOL YOUR JETS, LITTLE Y!**_ "

A wet-cheeked Yamato yelped on hearing that shout from a certain missile cruiser, then she slowly turned to stare in confusion at Long Beach. Nearby, Shinano and Musashi were busy trying to comfort a very green-faced Yonaga, who was desperately trying not to throw up the very rich breakfast her sister had lovingly cooked for her. As Enterprise tried to comfort her girlfriend, the missile cruiser took a deep breath. "She's got nothing against you, Little Y!" she then said. "Click your CIC in for a moment, huh?! You know what Big Y went through over the last three score and ten, right?! How would she react to having such good food after her crew had to nearly STARVE, just having fresh fish and seaweed all the time, huh?!"

The other shipgirls now in the café all winced before a chorus of sympathetic looks crossed their faces as they gazed in mute horror at the seventh carrier of Operation Z. "Oh, Onē-sama, I'm sorry!" Yamato nearly sobbed.

Yonaga grunted as she waved her sister down. "Do not fret about my issues, Yasuko-san," she said as she leaned on Musashi while moving to return to her chair. As several destroyers shifted themselves to remain close to the large carrier, Yonaga reached into her kimono top to pull out a small packet. "Could someone prepare this tea for me, please? Just one cup is necessary," she hissed out as she held the packet out, gazing around at the other shipgirls in the café.

That was quickly taken by Kirishima. "I'll do it, Yoiko-san."

"My thanks, Isabel-san. If anyone is interested in finishing this..."

Here, she waved to the large plate of partially-eaten food — a mixture of standard Japanese and American fare fit for someone of her nature — before her. Seeing that, both her would-be mission mates and her sisters jolted. "Onē-sama, you have to eat SOMETHING!" Izumi hissed out as her eyes teared while she stared fretfully at her sister's rather drawn face. "Look at you! You must be running on fumes now! Even if you've been supported by the Ryūseizen all this time...!"

"Izumi-chan, enough!" the youngest-yet-oldest of the Yamato-class cut her off. "The mesonium embedded in the rocks and glaciers of Sano-wan and which were fed into my systems through the geothermal vents that were in the inner end of the cove ended up causing my systems to be purified to the point where my fuel consumption is a quarter of any of you despite my larger mass, four extra boilers and two extra turbines. In one sense of the term, I'm as 'nuclear' powered..." — she made a single finger-quote — "...as Naomi-chan is." As people gazed on Long Beach, Yonaga indicated Kirishima, who had come to this meeting with all her sisters save Hiei (who was in Sasebo). "The tea Isabel-san is preparing now was specifically created for me when it was discovered that I inherited my crew's vulnerability to having rich food after being on short rations for so long. It will suppress the nausea down enough, but I won't be able to enjoy Yasuko-san's cooking for some time..."

"It is a weird-tasting tea," Kongō said after dipping her finger into the boiling pot that her sister was using to make the tea, then tasting it. "The Ryūseizen made this for you? Why didn't they stop your crew from...?"

People instantly winced as the British-born fast battleship stuttered before finishing that question. "Their crews were oath-sworn to never interfere in local traditions, Anne-san," Yonaga explained. "If any they rescued chose seppuku..."

"It was honoured," Enterprise finished.

"Hai, Yvonne-san." Here, Yonaga gazed knowingly at Hiryū.

The pony-tailed brown-haired carrier tensed on sensing that look, then her eyes went wide. "Teitoku...Kaku-taisa...?"

"Hai, Hiyoko-san. Two days after you foundered off Midway, her captain gladly served as kaishaku-nin for both Tamon-san and Tomeo-san," Yonaga gently finished, which made all the shipgirls save Long Beach gasp before they turned to stare wide-eyed at Hiryū. "The night before that happened, her captain gladly allowed them to write letters that could be passed down to those kami who rose from you...and you specifically." As the former flagship of the Second Carrier Division blushed on realizing that her beloved "Tamon-maru" had sensed all along that her living spirit did exist within her hull, Yonaga lightly smiled as Sōryū gently squeezed her sister's shoulders. "I'll given them to you in private, Hiyoko-san."

Hiryū sniffed. "Arigatō, Yoiko-san..."

"It's a pity we can't find out more about them," Aoba mused from nearby, she seated with her sister and the other members of Cruiser Division Six. "Given how much they're known among us all, that we don't know specifics..."

"A certain treaty stands in the way of that, not to mention the fear of those like Reiko-san's son about your learning their whole story, Ayako-san," the large carrier said as she gave the shipgirl news reporter a knowing look.

The pony-tailed pink-haired cruiser perked at that stare, then she smirked. "Loud and clear, Yoiko-san," she said as she toasted the seventh carrier of Operation Z with her own cup of coffee. While Yonaga was oath-sworn to stay silent about the specific details, that one statement concerning Nagato's adopted son gave Aoba the right sort of clue to investigate further. Not to mention told everyone about what sort of agency controlled those mysterious monster-hunting battleships whose crews had saved THOUSANDS of sailors on all sides of the world wars from deadly sea leviathans about the size of Gojira in the original movie that always appeared during times of incredible battles such as Jutland and Leyte Gulf.

"Canada, Australia and New Zealand," Enterprise noted, a smirk crossing her face. "The original ones from the Great War were Canadian. The Australians and the New Zealanders had copies of the ship whose crew saved Hood's and Bismarck's in 1941. People noted the maple leaves, kangaroos and kiwis on their funnels, so their countries of origin are quite obvious."

People nodded as Kirishima came over with Yonaga's herbal tea. Nodding her thanks, the carrier sipped from it, though she was quick to see the third of the Kongō-class wink conspiratorially at the fifth of the Yamato-class...

* * *

 _ **Tomobiki, Tomobiki Senior High School, the cafeteria, lunchtime...**_

"Man! Finally, we get some information about the shipgirls! What the hell blocked it for so long?!"

"Search me, man!"

As several known kanmusu fans began to scan their cell phones and tablets to get updated information about what had been going on concerning the Abyssal War over the last year, others had gathered around a table headed by Kanzaki Ryūha of Class 2-5. The notable absence of all members of Class 2-4 thanks to the recent issue concerning Moroboshi Ataru's other "fiancée" was telling on everyone. Shortly after Ataru and those who were very close to Redet Lum — Sakurambō Sakura and her uncle Hayao, Miyake Shinobu, Fujinami Ryūnosuke, Mendō Shūtarō and the core members of Lum's Stormtroopers — were taken on Saturday into space, the others of the class, including homeroom teacher Onsen Mark, had been kidnapped right from class on Tuesday afternoon. Such had caused a massive shitstorm to stir up among the parents and other adults in town...with the blame for the whole issue being squarely dropped on Ataru's shoulders. Of course, that also reflected on the students...

"I hope Mendō-san's safe," one senior girl mused from the table next to the one where Ryūha was seated. "The way that stupid biker girl came along and just ripped him and the others out from their houses like that...!"

"How could Ataru have two-timed Lum-chan like that?!" a freshman boy asked from Ryūha's left. "Having another girl...!"

"He didn't know about this Queen Elle," Ryūha said, making people gaze at him. "That's what Megane told me before Benten-san took him and the others away on Saturday. Still, given how much Ataru hates Lum-chan..." — saying that made many of the boys hiss in outrage — "... he certainly would have wanted to get the chance to get away from her. Don't know why Onsen-sensei and the others were taken away by the Oni, though. Maybe Lum-chan stopped this..."

" _ **HEY!**_ "

People turned as a wide-eyed sophomore ran into the room. "What is it, Hideyuki-kun?" one of the girls from Ryūha's class asked as Mifune Hideyuki, who had been in Class 1-4 before April (when he advanced to Class 2-7), came up, iPad in hand.

Hideyuki stopped and placed the tablet on the table close to Ryūha "This just got in! They found the fifth of the Yamato-class, Warship No. 797!" As people gasped on hearing that, he grinned. Even if he was part of the Stormtroopers, he was a major kanmusu otaku. "She's the one the Abyssals call the 'Angry One'!" As people gasped again — the many legends and tales of the deadly and nigh-invulnerable hunter who always tracked down and killed the demons of the oceans that dominated the Arctic basin since right after Blood Week were known — Hideyuki took a deep breath. "There's worse news. Ataru's grand-uncle Moroboshi Kyōsuke-taii was assigned as her junior navigation officer. Somehow, the whole crew survived until last November when they all committed mass seppuku to turn her into a kanmusu." He paused as people croaked in horror while many girls began to sob at the idea of a large group of people doing THAT. "Right now, she's in Yokosuka..."

A bright flash of energy caused people to gasp!

As the students all blinked to clear their vision, a cold woman's voice then echoed over the scene, "So this is Kyōsuke-san's alma mater. You would think they would build improvements into this place since the Greater East Asia War."

"Yeah, this is Partytown HQ," another voice with an American accent declared as people looked over to the main entrance.

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

Then...

"Holy shit! She's Shinano-chan on STEROIDS!" Ryūha exclaimed.

Hearing that, the eyebrow of a certain carrier with grey-flecked black hair arched to just under her gold headband bearing her name and two of the hexagonal pads that represented the antennas of her AN/SPY-1 three-dimensional radar system. "Young man, are you insisting that my little sister takes performance-enhancing supplements?" she then coolly asked.

That made Ryūha — who had pretty much taken over leadership of the Stormtroopers thanks to the absence of Aisuru Satoshi and his small group — awk as he sensed the newcomer's huntsman glare drill right into his soul. "N-n-no...!"

"Are you insisting that _**I**_ am taking such supplements?!"

He shrieked before rapidly shaking his head. "Oi, Big Y! Go easy on these poor cats! They can't help it if the square spirits in this town have been screwing around with their brains all this time!" the smaller shipgirl beside her noted.

The aircraft carrier — which she obviously was given the mixture of kyūdō and kendō gear she wore over her green kimono top with grey hakama trousers; the katakana **ヨ** on her black tare with landing stripes loudly indicated that — sighed. "You are quite correct, my friend. Indeed, the wa of this town makes me feel as if we're now in the midst of a major Abyssal base." As many students hearing this all gasped in horror, the newcomer gazed at them. "Be calm, minna-san. It is not the enemy that threatens you, but selfish yōma who gladly delight in influencing your lives in ways you might not desire. Such as a certain dream demon that gave you quite garish nightmares in his quest to give one of your peers a 'good dream'." As confusion crossed people's faces for a moment, the carrier — some of the people close to her had been quick to read the kanji of her name on her forehead, etched into her bridge wing-augmented hairband — smirked. "Mujaki-san?"

The eyes of many girls instantly lit up in recognition as some of the boys winced as they recalled the aftermath of that particular night during the winter fair back in February. "You mean that thing's still out there, Yonaga-sama?!" one sophomore girl then demanded as blooms of outrage began to billow around many of the sophomores and seniors who had been juniors and sophomores back then; such instantly made many of the boys nearby shy away from them.

"Hai, he is..."

Yonaga's hand then became a blur...

" _ **HEY!**_ "

...making people gasp as the carrier instantly snatched a VERY familiar — to those who had been part of Class 1-4 the previous fall such as Mifune Hideyuki — dwarfish man in a tuxedo with top hat out of NOWHERE! As many of the students shrieked at the sight, the cruiser — clearly American with the hull number **9** on her psychedelically-camouflaged armoured thigh-highs — looked over, her blue eyes focusing like targeting lasers on Mujaki. "Hey, Dream Dude! How's it going?"

The dwarfish dream demon looked straight into the cruiser's eyes, then turned as white as a ghost on sensing what was now staring him down. "N-n-Naomi-ch-ch-chan...!" Mujaki sputtered. "N-n-now, there's n-n-no need for violence...!"

"Oh, yeah?" the American asked. "You thought you'd get away from causing the bad scene in the 'Nam?" As some kanmusu otaku in the room perked on hearing that, she smirked as she grabbed Mujaki by his collar, yanking him out of Yonaga's hand. "C'mon, square dude! You and I are gonna have a little pow-wow about you causing such bad scenes! 'Scuse me, Big Y."

"Have fun," Yonaga bade as the cruiser walked out of the room.

The dream demon's frightened screams that followed soon became music to many people's ears...

* * *

 _ **The principal's office, an hour later...**_

" _ **RIDICULOUS! MOROBOSHI-KUN WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO TRANSFER...!**_ "

 _KK-KRUNCH!_

Yonaga pulled her hand back after she viciously smacked the elderly administrator who ran Tomobiki High School down with a mild slap to the back of the head, which sent his head face-first into his desk. As several students — the whole of the student council was present to represent the class groups save Class 2-4 for obvious reasons — gave the large aircraft carrier grateful looks, the would-be participant of Operation Z then gazed on the older female look-alike of Moroboshi Ataru in the black martial arts gi seated before the Principal's desk. "Please continue, Negako-sama. I'm sure that the good secretary here is more than happy to see to it your desire concerning Ataru-san is fulfilled without this abusive braggart's interference."

Moroboshi Negako sighed. "My thanks, Yoiko. As I was stating before Tomohiro interfered like he did, Mariko, Ataru will no longer attend this school," she then said as she gazed on the school secretary/administrative officer, Nanase Mariko. As the boys in the background gasped with dread and anticipation on hearing that — with the departure of the "cancer of Tomobiki", the other boys' chances with Redet Lum increased exponentially...unless Lum went after him to Sasebo, where he would be living while he worked as a "special boatswain's mate" for the shipgirls there, Yonaga above all — the ninjutsu grandmaster and current Steward of the Moroboshi Clan of Mutsu smirked. "Since residents of all members of the Galactic Federation of Planet-states are not permitted to reside anywhere beyond the borders of Tomobiki-chō, Lum will not be able to continue to pursue Ataru to justify her false claim of marriage." As all the boys in the room gasped again, this time in delight, a cruel smile crossed Negako's face. "Which will no doubt convince her to return to Uru post-haste and never return to this solar system."

As the boys all croaked in gut-wrenching horror on hearing THAT possibility — which was their ultimate nightmare — the girls perked in delight at the idea of the warlord's daughter never coming back to haunt their lives anew. Despite Redet Lum's help many times when it came to dealing with things like perverts and the like, the fact that nearly all the boys of the school were deeply infatuated with Lum always made their skins crawl. "Will Ataru-kun be alright, Negako-san?" Nagahama Aiko, one of the participants in the Miss Tomobiki High contest from March who was also the captain of the girl's basketball team, asked. "I mean, even if he hated the whole idea of marrying Lum-chan, he still cared for her. And we don't..."

"Be assured, Aiko, Ataru no longer has the emotional need to pursue women as he did before he was nearly forced to marry Lum on Wednesday morning our time," Negako stated. "Personal gifts given in apology for his past behaviour will be delivered to all those in school whom he bothered for telephone numbers to pursue dates; that will be done by this time next week. To prove his honesty, Ataru wishes to ensure that he does not miss anyone and also desires to ensure the gifts are appropriate." She then smiled before sipping the tea that Mariko had given her. "Of course, that also includes Fujinami Ryūnosuke. Be assured, all will be done to ensure her father cannot destroy such gifts to deny them to Ryūnosuke..."

And sure enough...

" _ **HOW DARE YOU IMPLY THAT MY**_ **SON** _ **IS A GIRL, YOU FOOLISH WOMAN...?!**_ "

" _ **HEY, OLD MAN!**_ "

Before Fujinami Fujimi could race in on a tidal wave to berate Negako for such a ghastly "mistake", a surfboard flew in...

 _KK-KRACK!_

"I love the seaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...!"

People sighed, many shaking their heads, as the elderly fisherman was flung out the open window of the Principal's office thanks to a certain missile cruiser. "Doesn't he ever STOP...?" Sada Yuko, another participant of the Miss Tomobiki High contest who now served as the president of the school student council, moaned as the other girls all glared in disgust at where the clearly-misogynistic janitor and supervisor of the school store had been flung out of the building.

"The old surfer dude won't have a choice," Long Beach said as she wiped her hands. Her identity had shocked the kanmusu otaku as NO known modern warship had been summoned back as a shipgirl since the general war began. "Hey, Earth Child! I made sure that cat-ghost ain't gonna get into the A-man's way when he comes here to get his stuff down to Sasebo Town."

Negako looked over. "How did you...?"

" _ **STUPID GHOST! HOPPŌ**_ _ **SAID STAY STILL! GHOST LEAVE ATARU-NIICHAN ALONE!**_ "

As people gasped on hearing that childish shriek from the foyer, Negako's eyebrow arched. "I see," she calmly noted as she ignored the shrieking howls of what had to be Kotatsuneko. "I would assume Reiko is here as well, Cass."

"Yeah...!"

" _ **HOW DARE YOU MAKE HOPPŌ-CHAN UPSET, YOU MONSTER?!**_ "

As many of the students raced out of the principal's office, Negako smirked as she rose to follow them out, accompanied by Yonaga and Long Beach. Reaching the T-junction that connected the west wings of the school with the main doors, they stopped to see a certain mike-furred cat-ghost now being held from running out of the building by a child-like installation princess from the Aleutian Islands. As some of the students laughed — much that they knew how powerful Kotatsuneko was, they never cared for him given all the yowling he caused neighbourhood cats to engage in ever since he came to town — Hoppō snarled as several of her fighters moved to gnaw at the cat-ghost's ears, making Kotatsuneko screech in pain. Standing at the doorway with her rigging deployed was a certain raven-haired battleship, who had a gruesome look on her face as she watched her adopted daughter go to work on this pathetic yūrei that had caused far more harm than good.

"You may release him, Hoppō," Negako bade, which made Hoppō gaze her way. As she tried not to shiver at the presence of the Angry One and the Crazy One standing to either side of the Earth Angel, the ninjutsu grandmaster smirked. "I made sure the whole grounds of the house were warded against him and his kotatsu is now in the lot where Hayao normally resides. He will not stop Ataru when he arrives here with Roberta to obtain his belongings and move them to Sasebo."

Hoppō's eyes narrowed. "Earth Angel sure stupid ghost won't bother Ataru-niichan? Hoppō won't like it if Ataru-niichan puts on his death armour! It scares Hoppō and makes Zia Roma upset since she can't do mushy stuff with him!"

"Be assured, Hoppō, Ataru can control himself better than he did when he returned to Earth in November," Negako assured.

As many of the students and staff listening to this blinked in confusion, Hoppō nodded as she released Kotatsuneko's leg while Nagato stowed her rigging. "Stupid ghost go away!" the young princess snarled as the large cat-ghost raced off, a trail of smoke marking his passage. "Hoppō hope that Ataru-niichan zap stupid ghost with stinky alien girl's lightning to make him go away!" she then muttered as she walked over to stand beside her mother, her fighters hovering at her shoulders.

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

Then...

"Little One."

Hoppō gargled on hearing that cold voice, then she looked over. "H-h-hai...?"

Yonaga's grey eyes were narrow as she glared at the Abyssal. "By what you just said now, are you implying that you and your sisters worldwide came forth to expunge the ALIEN presence that has been on this world since well before the Roswell Incident in Shōwa-nijūninen?" she asked, which made people gape...save Negako, who was nodding as a grim look crossed her face. "Especially when it comes to young Lum's so-called 'most faithful'? And their unfortunate 'slave' assistants?"

Hoppō blinked before she nodded. "Hai, Angry One! Stupid stinky copycat aliens break End Treaty! Since Undying Lord not here to punish stupid stinky copycat aliens, Hoppō and Hoppō's sisters take care of them when they close to shore!" She blinked. "Can't Angry One or Crazy One smell them in this bad place?! They stink up everything in town, especially poor kids who be spied on to make stupid 'holy book' about stupid stinky alien who hurt Ataru-niichan all the time!"

"Fret not, Hoppō," Negako stated. "The last of them who are in this town do not realize their 'slaves' were freed of that loyalty lock system when the bioroid factory was moved into the third Sol-Terran libration point last July after Ataru and I assisted in the liberation of the Avalonians." As the students exchanged stunned looks while a couple began to gape as realization dawned and Hoppō whooped in delight while her fighters chatted in excitement, the ninjutsu grandmaster added, "That starbase self-destruct device buried in the Ginza near Tampopo's old restaurant was neutralized for the chance to come to have it teleported back in time to destroy the Niphentaxian fleet at Phentax Twenty. Tennō wishes to have as devastating a victory as possible delivered on the observers in town before we obtain Haruhi's help in repatriating them."

"Tennō's wishes will be honoured, of course," Yonaga instantly cut in.

Hoppō hummed, then she nodded, crossing her arms. "Hoppō think it hurt worse if stupid stinky aliens from Oni world be made to see what happens to stupid stinky copycat aliens! Not to mention stupid alien lovers here in town!"

Negako smirked as some of the boys gulped at the fact that the Abyssals didn't care for aliens...especially one particular alien who had entranced them for a year. "That sounds like an excellent plan, Hoppō."

The installation princess from Unalaska madly blushed as Nagato reached over to rub her head, which made Hoppō shudder. "Um...Negako-san, are you saying that Ataru was somehow MOVED BACK IN TIME?!" Mifune Hideyuki demanded.

"Exactly, Hideyuki. On the very day that Ataru first encountered Lum here, his 'future-self' was moved to another planet controlled by the Noukiites, very old rivals of the Urusians, to allow him to escape the many issues that haunted him here. He has had a year and more to expunge his feelings for Lum. With Roberta — Roma — now forging a soul-bond with him, there is no possibility for either Lum or Amora (whom you know as Queen Elle) to seek his hand in marriage. As I am now his legal guardian as so decided by the Tōkyō Family Court in November due to his parents' chronic abandonment and abuse of him, the 'deal' Muchi and Kinshō made with Invader and Chim concerning Lum's marriage to Ataru has no legal standing either on Earth or Uru. Never mind Lum's original lie concerning her being engaged to Ataru at the end of the Tag Race."

The students gaped in shock as that information overload slowly overcame them...

* * *

 _ **The Dobu Salada Inn (near the border between Nerima and Nishitōkyō), nightfall...**_

"Restaurant not stinky! Why it called 'sewage salad'?"

The owner of one of Tomobiki's more popular eateries laughed before he reached over to gently rub Hoppō's forehead. "It's was named as a joke, Hoppō-chan! This place used to be a manure dump for local farmers who worked for the Mendō and the Mizunokōji back in Edo days. People still remembered that dump was here even after the area was built up in the wake of the Reformation. When my grandfather built the first version of the restaurant, he named it 'Dobu Salada' in reference to the old dump that was here. Didn't do much in the way of business because of that at the start, but given the standards Ojii-san demanded of his cooks, people came back because they liked the food too much. So we kept the name."

The installation princess blinked on hearing that, then she shook her head. "Hoppō still think it weird," she muttered before perking on hearing a mournful yowl echo from the direction of the Moroboshi home. "Stupid cat-ghost...!"

"Oi, Negako-san! Is there some way to get rid of that thing?"

That was Mifune Hideyuki. A representation of Lum's Stormtroopers from Tomobiki High and the Rosebuds — who represented all of Mendō Shūtarō's many fans across all the high schools in Nishitōkyō and Kodaira — had come here to meet the woman who was now legally in charge of the most notorious (to them) high school student in Japan if not the whole world. Having long known how much certain elements of the Japanese government — in concert with the Kantō Magical Association, to say anything of the many yōkai who haunted Tomobiki itself — had worked to keep the truth of the Abyssal War secret from the aliens who had come to Tomobiki over the last year, Moroboshi Negako knew that the revelations she would soon make would rock the foundations of many people's worldviews. And in the end, save lives; she also knew of certain international interest in the events in Tomobiki — which had been blared out uncensored by the news media and investigated thoroughly by worldwide intelligence agencies — with an eye towards making sure such events would never come to harm anyone again.

"He will be properly exorcised in due course, Hideyuki," Negako then stated. "Ataru would gladly have done it himself given the abilities I gave him by my presence in his subconscious mind over the last decade, but given Tennō's desire to deliver as vicious a psychological blow to the Urusians and the Lumite-aligned Niphentaxians as possible, such an exorcism will be carried out when Lum and Jariten are permitted to return to Earth to retrieve their belongings."

All the boys in the room save for Unbaba Tetsu and the Nyōke twins Hitori and Futari — who normally supported the Rosebuds — all visibly winced. Seeing that, Negako sighed. "Do you all wish Lum to die?" she bluntly asked.

Gargled gasps escaped the boys as the girls gave them sympathetic looks; much that they all deeply hated Lum, they never would wish THAT on her. "Oi, Hoppō-chan, is there something you can do?!" Kanzaki Ryūha asked as he gazed hopefully at Nagato's adopted daughter; the battleship was seated at her own table with Yonaga and Long Beach. "I mean, I can guess why you'd want these Niphentaxians off the planet because of their slaves and all that, but Lum-chan means no harm!"

"Oh?"

That was Nagato. As everyone stared at her, the battleship's eyes narrowed. "You people were deliberately kept blind by whatever group was responsible for the masking of all information concerning my daughter's 'friends' to the aliens, but the rest of the world really has no care for aliens. This is not just because of the Niphentaxians and what they did to the Avalonians, of course." As Hoppō snarled on thinking about the poor crystal-bloods who suffered for years at the hands of the stupid copycat aliens, the flagship of the Combined Fleet at Pearl Harbour sighed. "Think of the incident with the world's oil Aisuru-san and his friends instigated after the Tag Race. Don't fall back on the habit of blaming it all on Ataru-kun. After all, did HE know how to summon that taxi in the first place?" Here, her eyebrow arched as she gave the gathered students a knowing look.

That made the girls perk. "Hey, how the hell did Megane know how to do that?!" Ogin Haneko, the Sanrinbō Institute senior who lead the Rosebuds, asked as she gazed intently at Ryūha and Hideyuki. "Did he ever tell you that?"

The boys exchanged looks. "We don't know, Sempai," Hideyuki then confessed. "We never really thought to ask him."

"The yōma were responsible for that, Negako-sama?" Yonaga asked.

"Most likely, Yoiko," Negako affirmed. "I would require some time to fully reintegrate myself into the wa of the town to determined the true spiritual history of Tomobiki in the decade or so I was in Ataru's subconscious mind."

"Ataru was made — tricked, I mean! — to take this 'promise' to keep you alive when he was SIX, Shihan-sama?!"

That was Tetsu, who had a wary look on his face. As soon as he learned that Moroboshi Negako was the legendary Imperial Special Agent #49, the strange being who had effectively wrote finis to the Greater East Asia War when she went forth to kill the last ebony meson-infected warriors of the Black Dragon Society that had long opposed the War Hawks in that conflict, he had gushed over her like she was the Heavenly Sovereign himself. Even getting the true explanation of who and what Negako really was — Earth's first true artificial intelligence who acquired full sentience back in 1808 and the spiritual "daughter" of the Immortal Master Hosan Hirosuke himself — didn't change the large thug-like dropout's view of the beautiful woman now living in a Terran-form Avalonian body patterned after her last host's DNA at about twenty years physical age. Given how much people in Tomobiki's tough crowd respected Tetsu's opinions, that would make their accepting Negako's words as sacrosanct. And while the Rosebuds found it hard to accept Negako as she was given her association with a man they didn't care for, they knew that having her on their side would knock some big holes in the Stormtroopers' desire to support Lum.

With one of the most famous shipgirls in the world and her Abyssal-born adopted daughter accepting Negako up front...!

"Indeed, he was tricked, Tetsu," Negako stated, which made the girls scowl on hearing that while some of the boys shuddered. "My previous host, Hana Hirosuke, had been fatally wounded while carrying out Tennō's desire. In his delirium, he deliberately sought Ataru out as my next host regardless of the fact that Ataru had never been physically or emotionally prepared to serve as my host. The Promise was made and my soul transferred over, but that caused a...fracture in Ataru's psyche." As people winced on hearing that and some of the people from Tomobiki High who had seen Ataru in "serious mode" nodded in grim understanding, the ninjutsu grandmaster then gazed intently at the former Butsumetsu High senior. "Tetsu, please do not call me 'shihan'. Much that Tennō did declare me as such, I have no use for such titles in public speech."

That made people blink. "That's an odd attitude, Negako-san," Haneko noted.

The grandmaster of Saikō Jinseijutsu-ryū sighed. "Haneko, even those who have achieved such a rank in their own Art strive to learn new things. I find it ridiculous to claim such a title when I myself still have much to learn about the human condition, especially now that I have finally achieved what I have sought since I became fully sentient in Bunka-gonen." As people nodded in understanding, Negako sat back in her chair. "Now, concerning the issue of Ataru's former classmates..."

She was interrupted by a light tremor that surged through the building, making her eyebrow arch. People tensed — even in Tomobiki, they were long used to minor earthquakes — before they turned as Nagato gasped. "What the hell is THAT?!"

Negako looked to the west, her eyes narrowed. She then sighed as Yonaga and Long Beach both chuckled. "Oh, well done, Roberta-san," the carrier mused before sipping the sencha that had been prepared for her.

Negako shook her head. "Let us proceed outside," she bade.

People blinked...

* * *

 _ **Onishuto on planet Uru, the Onishuto Central Medical Facility, an hour later (local date and time: The 25th day of the Third Month in the 897th Year After Liberation, two hours after midnight)...**_

"Holy shit...!"

"Look at the size of that thing...!"

"Is that really a starship version of _Roma_...?!"

"What's it doing over Japan...?"

"Who BUILT it...?!"

"Oi! Mendō! Did your people do that?!"

Hearing that question from the leader of Lum's Stormtroopers, Mendō Shūtarō sighed as he imagined what his parents were going through at this time; he knew thanks to the smiling Oni technician who had helped the Terrans get some news from back home that there was a little delay in the news transmission from Earth. Right now on the large holovision screen in the guest lounge where the students of Class 2-4 plus their homeroom teacher, school nurse and her uncle had gathered for a late meal, an incredible shot of a FLYING BATTLESHIP which clearly was based on the Italian Littorio-class in general design — save for small details like a flush deck, horizontal elevators at the stern to couple with steering rudders and thrust jets where the screws would be, never mind more modern sensory and obvious missile launchers on the superstructure deck and weather deck — now floating over a kilometre above the streets of their home city was being displayed. The sheer scale of this thing — according to the NHK news feed which was being relayed by the Neptunians on Triton through automated sensor probes at the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars — had the talking heads in Tōkyō gushing like crazy about the possibility of Earth gaining its own SPACE FLEET, which would DEFINITELY guarantee the planet's freedom from "alien monsters" who would try to threaten the human race in the face of the ongoing war against the Abyssals. As for why this ship had come...?

"No, Megane, my family had no involvement in this," Shūtarō answered as he stared at the leader of Lum's Stormtroopers, Aisuru Satoshi. "While there were rumours of contacts with aliens before Lum-san came, we had no concrete knowledge of such things before Blood Week forced the nation to see to its own defence against the Abyssals." As the technician who had been helping them winced on hearing that, he sat back in his chair. "Does anyone who serves Oyuki-sama have any idea of what's going on, Shabe-san?" he asked the technician, Dedron Shabe. "Given that they are our system-mates..."

The slender and plain-looking green-haired man shook his head. "This totally caught Field Marshal Pukaze — she's Princess Oyuki's cousin and chief of the Royal Neptunian Defence Forces — totally off guard, Mister Shūtarō," he answered. "The Boss just got the word about NSI _Roma_ an hour ago." The farmer's son from the Urusian colony world of Shingetsu normally served as a signals technician on Redet Invader's flagship, the battlewagon _Kashin_ ; along with a small landing party, he had come down to help keep his boss' guests comfortable while the military authorities tried to figure out what had happened a little under two days before at the Onishuto Cathedral in the west end of the capital city. "Supposedly, it was in sidereal synchronous orbit at the meridian of the big Italian naval base at Taranto when it powered up its systems and flew down to your home town; that's when the Neptunian sensors picked it up. Must have been held at standby power after it was built."

"By who, though?!" Shitto Kōsuke, "Perm" of the Stormtroopers, asked. "There's no way in hell that we have that type of technology! Building a TEN-TO-ONE scale version of a Littorio-class battleship?! We don't even know if it's warp-capable...!"

"Oh, it's warp-capable, alright, Mister Kōsuke!" Shabe said with a delighted laugh. The Terrans had been quick to discover over the last couple of days they had been forced to stay here that he was quite knowledgeable about their home culture and felt proud of the fact that he had been part of the crew that had initiated first contact with Earth despite the initial pretext of an invasion; by now, all of Class 2-4 had learned that the "invasion" had been a necessary ruse to keep Uru's enemies away from the Sol system. "The sensors picked up a matter/antimatter drive system in _Roma_ 's two inboard engines; the outer ones are impulse drive units." As many of the Trekkers in the crowd gushed on hearing that, he added, "Don't know its speed or how in the name of the Maidens its systems are being controlled, but it has to be pretty advanced. Still, it doesn't look like it's based on Goa'uld technology; there's no sign of naquadah use even if the mesonium radiation output of that thing's huge..."

"The parasite race that pretended to be gods to our ancestors, you mean?" Sakurambō Sakura asked from beside Onsen Mark.

"Same snakes, Ms. Sakura," the technician stated with a nod. "I don't know the whole story, but your American friends made war on them for quite some years until these Abyssal things probably knocked out your first starships during this Blood Week thing when the Men In Black were killed off." As the students — who, in Shabe's eyes, were showing a lot of fortitude being their planet's first true ambassadors of sort to the Urusian people — nodded in understanding, he smiled. "Well..."

" _ **OI! THERE'S ATARU!**_ "

Hearing Megane's shout, people stared at the holovision...

...which now showed the image of a smiling man in a black martial arts gi with hakama trousers descending down a laser gangway from the weather deck of Nave Stellare Italiana _Roma_ towards the front yard of his family home near Tomobiki Senior High School; thanks to her 2377.6 metre length, the space battleship had been able to position her bow over the central residence of the Mizunokōji estate at Tomobiki's northern end and her stern over the central mansion of the Mendō estate at the western end of town. On Moroboshi Ataru's face was a tired smile even if he looked quite refreshed...

...and he wasn't alone.

"Roma-san...?!" Gekasawa Kumiko breathed out.

" _ **AH! ATARU! YOU BASTARD! HOW DARE YOU HOLD ROMA-SAN'S ARM LIKE THAT?!**_ "

As the Stormtroopers and their supporters all began to snarl at the sight of their classmate and the third of the Littorio-class battleships descending from the latter's starship namesake arm-in-arm, Shabe blinked. "Um, Mister Groom appears to be escorting Miss Roma down to meet all your friends in town, Mister Satoshi," the technician noted as he stared at the quaking Megane, whose glasses were now glittering with righteous outrage at the sight of Ataru "betraying" Lum like that...!

"Hey! Turn the volume up!"

At Inu Chigaiko's suggestion, the technician tapped a control to bring up the volume. " _...returning to his hated hometown after a year being forced into hiding after a time travel incident that transported him from the planet Uru and a blatant attempt at entrapment in marriage with the alien warlord's daughter Redet Lum — which took him to a planet owned by Earth's true galactic next-door neighbours, the Imperial Dominion of Noukiios, on the very day his 'past-self' was made to face Redet-san in the infamous Tag Race of last April — Moroboshi Ataru, a true hero of the modern world, is now escorting his beloved fiancée to meet up with the living spirit of his late great-uncle's ship and the current secretary ship of the Japanese Self-Defence Force's kanmusu, Yonaga-dono and Nagato-dono_ ," the reporter's voice echoed. " _The truth of what happened to Moroboshi-san is only now being allowed to be published within Tomobiki-chō itself thanks to the necessities of preventing a major temporal paradox issue because of the interference of a great Noukiite kami, the heavenly dragon Nengmek'i, in Moroboshi-san's life and stop his being forced to marry Redet-san for potentially nefarious purposes. The primary story that haunted Moroboshi-san's life in the last year was his forging a loving relationship with Roma-dono, the third of the Littorio-class battleships reborn as a kanmusu, known in public records as Roberta Ansaldo-chūsa of the Italian Navy...!_ "

"What...?" Miyake Shinobu demanded, her face paling.

" _...whom Moroboshi-san actually saved from the Messina Princess, an Abyssal war leader that tried to attack Roma-dono's home base of Taranto, on Christmas Day last winter,"_ the reporter continued. _"According to people in both Japan and Italy who are experts in the phenomena commonly called 'magical sparkly shipgirl bull-'..._ " — here, a **beep!** clicked in to block out the rest of the profanity — " _...that act of salvation forged what is seen by mystics worldwide as a Magical Life Debt between Moroboshi-san and Roma-dono. Who, hopefully soon, will become_ _ **Mrs. Moroboshi Roberta**_ _. After all he was made to endure at the hands of the alien invaders over a year — not to mention his suspected involvement in the liberation of the Avalonians, our new allies who had been enslaved by Redet-san's so-called 'most faithful' from the planet Phentax Two, last July...to say anything of his killing FIVE Abyssal installation princesses since he began residing in Taranto last November — we here at NHK can only wish Moroboshi-san and his fiancée all the best in the future. We'll keep you informed of this 'first contact' between the people of Tomobiki-chō and the REAL Moroboshi Ataru as this event in that long-suffering town continues._ "

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

Then...

"Hmpth! To believe there's someone ELSE who finds that idiot attractive...!"

 _KK-KRACK!_

That was Chigaiko, who had just winged Sakura in the side of the head with a handy chair, knocking the shrine miko/school nurse down. As the boys gasped on seeing "Yon-san" do that to their favourite teacher and all the girls gaped in shock at such a vicious reaction, the basketball team forward put the chair down. "Remember this, Sakurambō: You have to be ALIVE to curse someone! Not to mention have a working LARYNX! Keep your fucking opinions to yourself, you useless idiot!"

As Sakura moaned, Onsen shuddered. "Now, see here, Yon-san...!"

 _KK-KRACK!_

The long-suffering vice-principal and English teacher got it this time! "Who?"

As people winced — while many had noticed that they couldn't remember Chigaiko's name no matter how hard they tried, they hadn't really done anything to investigate the "why" this always happened — a metered clapping sound echoed from one corner of the room, which was covered in darkness. "Ooh! You gotta LOVE that righteous anger! Nothing I've seen in ALL my lifetimes doesn't get the fight scene going better than a _**revenge quest**_! No wonder Ataru likes you, Chigaiko..."

A gargled, mind-numbing scream from Shabe made everyone stare at him. The hapless technician was now as white as a ghost as he looked in the direction of that part of the room, which made the students turn to look themselves...

...then they gaped as someone dressed in an off-white jumpsuit with a turtleneck halter-top design without sleeves walk into the light as the technician nearly fainted in horror. Possessing black buccaneer boots and a black belt, she had a black insignia on her upper chest resembling the head of some type of wild dog. Her face was quite pretty if plain, with shaggy brown hair in the very style that their just-found classmate normally had. In fact, given the cant of her face and the lanky track-runner's body she had, she could easily be Moroboshi Ataru's own fraternal TWIN SISTER. As people gaped in shock at the sight of this being, her eyes instantly locked on the lone Urusian in the room. "Okay, umale..." she said in a weird mix of accents, primary being the mix of boyish western Kantō and southern Tōhoku dialects Ataru himself used. As people blinked, her smile turned lethal as her eyes glowed a brilliant silver for a moment, which made Shabe nearly piss himself. " _ **RUN!**_ "

He disappeared in a cloud of smoke, a wailing shriek marking his passage. The newcomer watched him go with an amused smile, then she shrugged as she faced her genetic twin's old classmates. "Well, while the stupid umale are busy soiling their trousers and acting like beheaded barn animals, what say we do as the great Snagglepuss himself once said..."

" _ **EVIL SPIRIT! BEGONE!**_ "

 _WHAM! BAM! KK-KRACK! KA-POW! CRUNCH! KLUNK!_

That was Sakurambō Hayao, the elderly Buddhist monk known as "Cherry" to all in Tomobiki, after he was literally smashed down by a DOZEN cinder blocks that came out of NOWHERE to drop him before he got close to Ataru's mysterious twin. As many of the students gaped at the sight of the little glutton being put down so quickly, the newcomer sighed. "Fates above! What an homr'bu umale! You could set an _**atomic clock**_ to this old fool! Ataru UNDERSTATED how much of a heel he was!"

"You're _**Yizibajohei**_...?!"

Megane croaked. " _ **TSURUYA! DON'T SAY THAT DAMNED WORD...!**_ "

A wild chorus of screams echoed through the hallways as alarms sounded off. Hearing that, the newcomer smiled as she raised her right hand to snap her fingers. "To quote the great master himself..."

 _SNAP!_

* * *

 _ **Tomobiki, the front lawn of Tomobiki High School, that moment...**_

"...'Exit: Stage Left!'"

Everyone gasped in shock as the slight difference of gravity between Uru and Earth registered in their minds once they materialized on their homeworld, then they looked around to take in the familiar sights of their rustic school in early evening, the sun setting now behind the peaks of the Kantō Mountains off to the west...and underneath the hovering keel of NSI _Roma_ , whose systems were making a thrumming noise in the air over Tomobiki. The drone of helicopters then made people look up to see a virtual air group of machines now hovering around the space battleship with its beautiful pendant number **21** in red on the hull under the forward superstructure, her name in red letters close to her stern. Many of the helicopters were civilian machines with the logos of various news stations on their hulls, with the others being a mixture of Japanese and American attack and scout machines from nearby military bases. Not a single Mendō Air Corps machine was visible, which made Shūtarō shudder; his clan's paramilitary forces had always been allowed to operate without any undue restrictions by the government, so why on Earth hadn't they deployed from the airport at the southern end of the estate to examine this ship?

Unless...!

No...!

NO!

Had Moroboshi somehow...?

" _ **WE'RE HOME! WE'RE FREE FROM THOSE ALIEN MONSTERS!**_ "

He jolted on hearing Marubeya Momoe shriek out like that, then he winced as the others girls — even Shinobu! — whooped in delight, many hugging each other in relief at having escaped their effective kidnapping to another planet. As many of the boys looked lost and confused, Megane shuddered as a bloom of anger appeared around him, his glasses glittering. " _ **YOU STUPID, ARROGANT BITCHES!**_ " he then roared out. " _ **HOW DARE YOU CELEBRATE LUM-SAN'S SUFFERING...?!**_ "

" _ **OI! TARIKO! GIVE HIM A NUMBER FIFTY!**_ "

"Hai!"

Megane jolted on hearing that hated voice...

...before he howled in near-mortal agony as DOZENS of cinder blocks began smashing his head and body like jackhammers, making him engage in a macabre dance that seemed to elevate him into the air thanks to the rain of blows that was turning him black-and-blue without ultimately killing him. As the other core Stormtroopers wailed at the sight of their leader being bashed apart like that, a moaning voice then called out from the front gate, "Tariko-nēchan's being MEAN!"

The blocks stopped as a bleeding and nearly-insensate Megane collapsed to the ground in a pool of his own blood. As people looked to the gate to see a huffing Hoppō standing there with Nagato standing protectively close to her daughter, the woman who had teleported all of Class 2-4 and the others from Uru looked over. "Oi! What's wrong, little one?!" Moroboshi Tariko asked as she walked over to rub Hoppō's head. "Ataru asked me to give him a Fifty, remember?!"

That made the childish princess blink before she blushed a deep grey. "H-hai! Hoppō remembers Ataru-niichan asking Tariko-nēchan to give stupid, stinky alien lover Fifty! But Hoppō wanted to beat up the stinky alien lovers!"

Tariko hummed, then she gazed on the three still-whole core members of the Stormtroopers. "Well, seeing as there are three more of..." Here, she hummed again as she tapped her chin. "Oh, what was that script line Ataru used again?" She then snapped her fingers. "Ah, yes! 'Traitors to humanity'?!" As the three boys awked in horror on hearing THAT term being applied to THEM, she gazed down on Hoppō as the installation princess' eyes lit up with delight. "Go get 'em, kiddo!"

"Hai!"

The three boys screamed as their classmates instantly cleared the road between them and Nagato's daughter, who instantly summoned several fighters to chase them down. As they ran away as fast as they could, they screamed every time tracer bullets zipped past their skin, all three of them wailing for Lum to come save them from the horrible little monster who was a million times worse than Redet Ten himself! As the girls and some of the boys — Shūtarō included — laughed at the sight of the Stormtroopers being put down so easily by Hoppō, a panicked yowl was heard from the street. "Oh, shit!" Ryūnosuke hissed out as people turned to look while a huge cat-ghost ran their way. "Here comes Kotatsuneko!"

" _ **LEAVE MY DAUGHTER ALONE, MONSTER!**_ "

 _PUNT!_

Kotatsuneko screeched in angry fright as he was literally kicked into the eastern sky by Nagato. As the students goggled in disbelief at that as they got an up-front look at how powerful a shipgirl really was in comparison to the town's most powerful resident, Hoppō cheered as her mother lowered her leg, then she shuddered as Tariko rubbed her hair again. After an explosion in the area of the east gate lit up the sky to indicate that Hoppō's fighters had finally nailed the Stormtroopers, Chigaiko began to laugh while a barely-recovered Megane sobbed in horror at the idea of the Abyssals specifically coming after HIM because of his veneration of Lum. "Oi, Hoppō-chan! You going to be sticking around for a while?! Anything that makes these four fools suffer for all the crap THEY unleashed is definitely good for the rest of us in this town!"

Hoppō gazed at her, then she hummed before she walked over to wave her mitten-covered hand over Chigaiko's head. "Curse go away! Leave Nii-chan's friend alone! She nice, not like other stupid girls who love slick-haired stinky alien-lover...!"

"' _ **SLICK-HAIRED STINKY ALIEN LOVER?!**_ '" Shūtarō shrieked as a look of total disbelief crossed his face.

Hearing that, Ryūnosuke howled with laughter. "Yeah, kiddo! That's kinda fitting for that arrogant ass!"

"' _ **ARROGANT ASS?!**_ '"

Joining in the laughter was Tsuruya Rumiko, which made Shūtarō look as he just got stabbed in the back. "Well, what did you expect, you rich idiot?! That ALL the girls in the world want to get into your boxers?!" Here, she made a face before looking away. "Thank Buddha I'm a lesbian! The idea of being in bed with someone like you makes my stomach turn!"

A croak of gut-wrenching agony escaped Japan's richest teenager before he collapsed in a semi-conscious daze onto the ground. Seeing that, Nagato shook her head. "Kami-sama, when Ataru-kun told me about how much you've suffered for lack of dates, Rumiko-san, I thought he was joking," she muttered, which made the only outed homosexual attending Tomobiki High gape at her. "I think we best get both yourself and Chigaiko-san down to Yokosuka as soon as possible."

That made both Rumiko and Chigaiko gape before they gazed at each other while the others all stared in confusion at them. "Chigaiko?! Inu Chigaiko?!" the former then asked. "How the hell did we all forget your...?!" She then stopped before looking at Hoppō. "Is that the curse you just saw, Hoppō-chan?" she demanded as she pointed at her classmate.

Hoppō nodded. "Hai! Stupid boy with red cape scare witch long time ago, so she cursed stupid boy's girlfriend to be forgotten by all their friends! Girlfriend die of loneliness!" As the other girls gasped in horror on hearing that as they instantly recalled the elderly gentleman in the tuxedo, mask and cape that had visited on Hallowe'en evening, the installation princess added, "When stupid cape-boy come back to this school to make people remember him, curse hits girlfriend of unluckiest or most hated boy then going to school! Curse always kills girlfriend from loneliness! Back on Hallowe'en, stupid cape-boy come to school! Since everyone here hate Ataru-niichan, he became curse's target. But since Ataru-niichan never really loved stinky alien Oni girl or stupid backstabbing hulk-girl, they not hurt! Ataru-niichan saved Chigaiko-nēchan when both were kids, so Chigaiko-nēchan always care for Ataru-niichan! That make curse hurt her until Ataru-niichan leave school!"

Stunned silence fell over the scene as all the people there gaped in horror before they stared wide-eyed at the woman they always called "Yon-san". Finally, a recovered Onsen Mark took a deep breath as he got up. "Inu-kun, if you wish to transfer out of school because of our total FAILURE to look out after you, please tell your parents to come visit the school tomorrow morning." As Chigaiko gaped in shock on hearing one of the staff call her by name after nearly six months of "Yon-san" or "Hey, you!" save from Ataru himself, the vice-principal gazed on the other students. "The same goes for the rest of you. Clearly, things have happened in this place that have hurt people more than helped! That's not right!"

Hearing that, the other students blinked before Momoe sighed. "The only real way to do that, Sensei, is to kick Lum out once and for all!" she snapped. "All the craziness happened after she declared Ataru-kun as her husband...!"

"Which was a flat-out LIE, by the way!"

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

Then...

"A lie...?" Shinobu demanded as everyone stared at Tariko.

"Of course!" the latter responded. "You know about the mindless slab of beef that empathic vampire Ran wants to have pillow scenes with, right?" As people nodded even if they were confused by the terms Tariko used, she added, "Well, turns out that two seasons ago, the slab of beef actually got so hungry, he almost ATE Lum!" As all the boys shrieked in horror on hearing that, she shook her head. "Can't blame her for wanting to be Ataru's pillow scene partner after he tagged her horns and accidentally said 'For marriage' after the slight here..." — she pointed to Shinobu — "...promised she'd become his pillow scene partner if he won the stupid tag game against the homr'bu umale!" As people gaped at Shinobu, Tariko shook her head. "Of course, Lum was betting on the fact that Ataru never knew that tags for 'marriage'..." — here, she made a disgusted face — "...don't happen in Tag Races! When Ataru got sent by that cutie Nengmek'i back in time to Okusei, Kyech gave him the lowdown! Which means that Lum won't have a chance to pillow him! Of course, if she tries something dumb, she'll probably face her death scene!" She shook her head. "Then again, she's just a dumb same! Won't be missed!"

All the boys stared in horror at her while most of the girls gaped in confusion at what had just been revealed. "Well, that proves you're Yizibajohei, alright," Rumiko stated, which made all the boys gasp in horror. "Who are you, Tariko-chan?"

Hoppō smiled. "Tariko-nēchan is _**Coyote**_ , Rumiko-nēchan!"

As the boys croaked in shock, Momoe gaped. "The _**Horror of the Mother of All Fight Scenes**_?!" she demanded; it had taken the girls of Class 2-4 about six hours to get the story of that tragic time from Dedron Shabe and his shipmates.

"You realize what THAT means, girls?!" Kumiko wondered.

They exchanged looks, then girls shrieked, " _ **WE'RE FREE! LUM'S GONE! WE'RE FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE...!**_ "

As many started to dance and whoop at that, most of the boys screamed in agony while Nagato shook her head...

 _ **To Be Continued...**_

* * *

 **WRITER'S NOTES**

Translation and explanation list: **Yōma** — Ghost, apparition, monster or demon, this is the general term for potentially harmful divine spirits in Japanese folklore; **Yu** — Noukiite suffix honorific equivalent to the Japanese "-chan" for vowel-ending names (for consonant-ending names, it's " **u** "); **Tennō** — Heavenly Sovereign, the proper title for Japan's head of state; **Heika** — Your Majesty, the honorific applied to an emperor or king; **Taii** — Navy lieutenant, Army captain or Air Force flight lieutenant; **Kidō Butai** — Mobile Force, the main striking formation of the Imperial Japanese Navy in World War Two; **Dono** — Honorific suffix for a titled lord; **Ryūseizen** — Dragon-killing warship; **Taisa** — Navy captain, Army colonel or Air Force group captain; **Kaishaku-nin** — Literally "the one who corrects a mistake", the person who beheads someone committing seppuku to stop the pain; **Wa** — Peace or harmony, the general "feel" of a home or other establishment; **Yūrei** — Specific term for ghosts; **Zia** — Aunt; **Shōwa-nijūninen** — Twenty-second Year of Shōwa (the year 1947 CE); **Shihan** — Grandmaster of a martial art school; **Bunka-gonen** — Fifth Year of Bunka (the year 1808 CE); **Nave Stellare Italiana** — Italian Navy Starship (short-formed **NSI** ); **Chūsa** — Navy commander, Army lieutenant colonel or Air Force wing commander; **Fight scene** — Yizibajohei term for a battle between metahumans or any other group of sentient beings; **Umale** — Same/sameness, this concept is applied to anyone who is genetically or socially seen as an effective drone by Yizibajohei, doomed to eventual extinction; **Homr'bu umale** — Literally "scripted same", this is someone who seems to follow rigid dogma to a VERY unhealthy degree, which Yizibajohei hate above all others; **Heel** — Yizibajohei term for what one might perceive as the "bad guys" in a fight, those who do what they do for selfish reasons; **Script line** — Specific words spoken by someone; **Pillow scene** — Sexual intercourse; **Season** — Yizibajohei term for a solar year; **Pillow scene partner** — One's lover or life-mate; **Slight** — A term used for someone with somewhat minuscule metahuman powers, not that much about a "norm" (non-powered person) to the Yizibajohei.

 _Urusei Yatsura_ and _The Senior Year_ minor character notes:

 **Kanzaki Ryūha** is a character created by **Depecheion** for various Anime Addventure chapters written after I wrote something there.

 **Mifune Hideyuki** was planned to be a character in a side story to _The Senior Year_ written by **Mike Smith** which hasn't been published yet.

 **Mujaki** was the antagonist of the second movie, _Beautiful Dreamer_ ; he first appeared in the manga story "Waking to a Nightmare" (manga chapter #31).

As noted above, **Nagahama Aiko** and **Sada Yuko** were participants in a school beauty contest depicted in the four-part "Miss Tomobiki High Contest" (manga chapters #186-189). Their family names are my invention.

 **Ogin Haneko** , the **Rosebuds** and **Unbaba Tetsu** first appeared in the anime story "Goodbye Season" (anime episode #64). **Nyōke Hitori** and **Nyōke Futari** also appeared in that episode, but were referred to there as the "Franken twins". Haneko's given name is my invention, as are the birth names of the Franken twins.

Oyuki's cousin **Pukaze** first appeared in _The Senior Year_ story "Mie's Story".

 **Gekasawa Kumiko** and **Marubeya Momoe** first appeared in the manga story "Even Though I Wait For You" (manga chapter #27). Their family names are my invention.

 **Inu Chigaiko** first appeared in _The Senior Year_ story "Darling's Secret Date".

 **Tsuruya Rumiko** is my name for the girl who often appeared in early manga stories that looks a lot like Takahashi-sensei herself, such as "Food Fight" (manga chapter #106); on the title page, she's at the left of the screen in the inwards curve of running people. Her being a lesbian is my invention, of course.

The "stinky boy with red cape" that Hoppō speaks of is the **Red Cloak** , who appeared in the like-titled manga story (manga episode #41).

For everyone's convenience, here are the human names for the shipgirls who appear or are mentioned by name here (listed by country and in order of introduction):

 _ **CANADA  
**_ (ship prefix **HMCS** [ **Her Majesty's Canadian Ship** ] in English or **NCSM** [ **Navire Canadien de Sa Majesté** ] in French)  
 **HMCS Erinsville** — Erin Jane Fingal

 _ **GERMANY**_

(ship prefix **DMS** [ **Deutsches Marineschiff** ] ["Germany Navy Ship"])  
 **DMS Bismarck** — Wilhelmine Luise "Luisa" von Bismarck

 _ **ITALY  
**_ (ship prefix **MM** [ **Marina Militaire** ] ["Military Navy"])  
 **MM Roma** — Roberta Ansaldo

 _ **JAPAN  
**_ (ship prefix **THG** [ **Tennō Heika Gunkan** ] ["Warship of His Majesty the Heavenly Sovereign"])  
 **THG Yonaga** — Itō Yoiko  
 **THG Akagi** — Fujita Anna  
 **THG Nagato** — Yamamoto Reiko  
 **THG Ōyodo** — Kobayashi Okiku  
 **THG Mutsu** — Yamamoto Chiyoko  
 **THG Sōryū** — Sumire Sei  
 **THG Hiryū** — Sumire Hiyoko  
 **THG Shōkaku** — Matsubara Kanako  
 **THG Zuikaku** — Matsubara Suzue  
 **THG Kaga** — Fujita Kei  
 **THG Yamato** — Itō Yasuko  
 **THG Musashi** — Itō Mutsuko  
 **THG Shinano** — Itō Shizuka  
 **THG Izumi** — Itō Izumi  
 **THG Mamiya** — Ōtani Shizuka  
 **THG Hōshō** — Asano Hoshie  
 **THG Kirishima** — Chihaya Isabel  
 **THG Hiei** — Chihaya Sarah  
 **THG Kongō** — Chihaya Anne  
 **THG Aoba** — Fujimoto Ayako

 _ **UNITED KINGDOM  
**_ (ship prefix **HMS** [ **Her Majesty's Ship** ])  
 **HMS Hood** — Mary Sonia Hood

 _ **UNITED STATES  
**_ (ship prefix **USS** [ **United States Ship** ])  
 **USS Long Beach** — Ellen Naomi Michelle "Mama Cass" Haight-Ashbury  
 **USS Enterprise** — Yvonne Claudia Swanson


	2. First Blood Drawn in Tomobiki

**_DISCLAIMER:_ _Concurrent with fair dealing clauses of the_ Copyright Act _(R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42) of Canada and fair use clauses in copyright legislation in other nations, this is a work that was created solely for entertainment purposes. Furthermore, it is posted freely on the Internet without expectation or requirement of remuneration._**

* * *

 _ **Tomobiki High School, Monday 24 April, after breakfast...**_

"Holy shit...it's TRUE?!"

As many people stopped to gape in total shock while some shook their heads in bafflement at what they were seeing, two women walked line-abreast through the west gate onto the grounds, both dressed alike in the dark blue winter seifuku uniform; summer dress wouldn't be allowed until after the end of Golden Week in the early part of May. They were virtual twin sisters, though one of them wore a black tie with a golden phoenix-like insignia on it while the other had the standard dark red tie normally worn by students at Tomobiki High. Given what had been discovered by Moroboshi Negako shortly after everyone from Class 2-4 was returned back to Earth by the ninjutsu grandmaster's sister Tariko on Friday, it was clearly obvious who was the original Miyake Shinobu and who was her replica, Miyake Saiko. Instantly, a considerable crowd gathered around them as people got out their cellphones to take pictures of one of the six newest students to join the roster.

"Damn! How did your parents take this?!" Marubeya Momoe said as some of the girls gently prodded Saiko's face and body.

Shinobu sighed before a wry smile then crossed her face. "They were actually ecstatic, Momoe-chan," she declared, which made the others laugh. "I mean, after Negako-san helped Saiko here go through this 'awakening' thing that the Avalonians have to endure all the time once they're woken up after their bodies are completed on that factory of theirs, she was alright." She gave her clone twin sister an annoyed look. "Even if she swears worse than Benten does at times!"

More laughter. "Well, that was a film about class violence," Mifune Hideyuki noted as people laughed, remembering that incident in late September when a malfunctioning alien camera provided by Redet Lum for the use of Class 1-4 wound up creating spiritual replicas of the warlord's daughter, her former rival, her would-be "husband" and her five "holy apostles" that ended up in a rumble with a bunch of toughs from Butsumetsu High School at Nishitōkyō's southern end. "Kinda not surprising that Saiko-chan, Tachiko-chan, Tokiko-chan, Takako-chan, Nijiko-chan and Mitsuko-chan would act like bōsōzoku. Is Danu-chan the same way, Saiko-chan?" he then asked as he stared in curiosity at Saiko.

"Yeah, she is! Given she was our 'leader' in that flick, it's a good thing Hiromi-chan talked her into keeping eye on the Avalonians now on Ceres." Saiko winked. "After all, she doesn't want to deal with her aneki's 'most faithful' anymore!" As groans escaped the others around her — even from the boys who would have liked an Avalonian replica of Redet Lum close by for them to admire up front and personal — Saiko smirked. "Should have seen the looks on those copycats' faces when their 'slaves' whipped out Lawgivers and stunned them unconscious before dragging them to the Ginza where that bomb was!" As people winced on remembering what had been revealed about the "final solution" that Lum's "most loyal" had planted in Tomobiki to ensure the final victory of his beloved "goddess" against the "great evil" had Moroboshi Ataru somehow gained the upper hand over Redet Lum, Saiko laughed. "The head moron's scream was pure music to my ears!"

"Did they get sent back to their planet?" Gekasawa Kumiko asked.

"Nah! Il Capo di Tutti i Capi wants them to really be broke before sending them back to the home range, Kumiko-chan," Saiko answered. "Same way Danu's aneki will get it big time for all the shit she pretty much caused since she came here!" Her eyes narrowed as many of the boys stiffened. "Oi! Stop thinking with your gonads! How many times people wound up in the hospital because of her or the rest of that crowd that came after her, huh?! Don't you care about _**that**_?!"

As the boys shuddered on hearing that, Shinobu sighed. "C'mon, Saiko. We got to make sure you're registered and put through the Lottery before you can get to classes," she bade her sister with a wave of her hand.

"Sure, Aneki, sure...!"

* * *

 _ **Class 2-4, morning break...**_

"It's so quiet now..."

"Yeah! Kinda weird, isn't it...?"

Many of the people in the class — who had officially lost four of their number over the weekend even if they gained six more — sighed as they moved to enjoy snacks before the next class began, even if it was going to be a study hall. Much to the frustrations of a lot of the boys such as Koi Shinjin — who was seen as next after Aisuru Satoshi when it came to passion concerning Lum — the four now-female replicas of the Stormtroopers didn't seem to care a whit about helping the boys find some way to get Lum back into their lives, much less convincing Danu to come live on Earth instead of residing on a small planetoid in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. While the teachers all seemed quite relieved that the main sources of problems had permanently left the school — save for the Principal, who looked ready to froth at the mouth at Moroboshi Ataru's many "misdemeanours" that demanded detention, he denying to everyone that listened to him that Ataru had actually transferred out and would NEVER be allowed to leave — the students seemed on a knife's edge. The girls were relieved at the fact that Lum was gone from their lives, which ensured their most favourite peer would never be "enspelled" by the alien ever again. However, they knew a lot of the boys in school hated the idea of Lum being chased off the planet for something they saw as being not her fault. But with the many revelations of what had come in the wake of the warlord's daughter last April...!

"Be thankful for that, Nara-san," came the very cultured voice of Mendō Shūtarō's own "gang twin" Tachiko. Much to her personal embarrassment and the amusement of the boys, she had been draped in a silver school seifuku matching her brother's own unique gakuran. Fortunately for her, the girls had been quick to sympathize with Tachiko's desire to not make such a scene; for someone who was in her heart a bōsōzoku herself, the new heiress to Japan's largest family was delightfully refined in a way that no doubt tugged hard at the hearts of her adopted parents Hajime and Hitomi, to say anything of her grandfather Genjurō. Much to everyone's surprise, even Tachiko's sister Ryōko had welcomed her into the Mendō mansion.

Which, of course, now made Shūtarō feel TWICE the fear of his sister's future plots against his sanity...!

"Yeah, you're right, Tachiko-chan," Sugihara Nara, one of the many who had been in Class 1-4 before the start of the month, breathed out. Like so many others, she had been pretty much an observer to the year's worth of hi-jinks and everything else that rocked the lives of people in Tomobiki since the Tag Race the previous spring. "Funny as it sounds, I'm finding myself missing Ataru-kun in a way! Given what everyone says about what happened with him and Negako-san...!"

"Amazes me that Ataru-kun actually likes Negako-san!" another former Class 1-4 alumnus, Nishihara Ikue, said as she sat back in her chair. "I mean, his mind almost got SPLIT APART because of her soul being shot into his head when he just turned SIX! It was no wonder that he couldn't think straight! It was a miracle he won the Tag Race in that state of mind!"

Many of the other girls nodded in understanding. "Oi, Ikue! Don't tell me that you got your 'apology gift'!" Momoe then teased as she gazed on the backup forward for the girl's basketball team...who would most likely take Inu Chigaiko's place once it sank in to her teammates that "Yon-san" was no longer a student at the school. "What did he get you?!"

Laughter filled the room. "Well, the most awesome bouquet of roses I've EVER seen, Momoe-chan!" Ikue answered. As many of the girls in the class hooted, she then winked. "He ALSO got me a season's pass to all the Alvark local games!"

" _ **NO WAY!**_ " many girls exclaimed; Alvark Tōkyō was one of the B. League's two First Division teams, based out of nearby Fuchū. Several alumni from Tomobiki High had played for that particular club and its predecessor organizations.

"So what did you get, Momoe-chan?!" Nara asked.

Momoe blushed. "Same type of roses! He even was taught proper rose language by Negako-san!" As the girls all whooped, she added, "He gave me a money gift so I could get Tendō Nabiki off my back, then promised that if she tried to be greedy, Kanami-chan would visit her and make her understand she isn't the top dog anymore! With Yonaga-sama back...!"

Many of the people in the class laughed as Kumiko squeezed her best friend's shoulder in support. The infamous middle daughter of the Tendō Clan of Ōizumi living in nearby Nerima had plugged herself into the Tomobiki student grapevine within weeks of the Tag Race, personally using Momoe herself as her local bookie. Try as some of the girls might to make the Fūrinkan High sophomore back off, Nabiki proved too stubborn for them; she also gladly vowed on several occasions to make use of Saotome Ranma to keep the "alien lovers" in Tomobiki in line. But with the revelation now that the magically-split off girl version of Ranma — who was now an Avalonian as Saiko and Tachiko were — was now the "special boatswain's mate" to Yonaga's new Second Fleet companion Taihō, the chances were VERY good that Nabiki would be made to withdraw once and for all. Never mind the rampant rumours escaping Nerima now saying that Ranma himself was terminally ill...!

"At least thanks to Ataru, the loons in Fight Central won't be trying to bug Kanami-san anymore," Aisuru Tokiko, Megane's twin, noted from her seat as she sipped a can of ice coffee; thanks to the recent awakening of her body — which had been templated as a "last ditch escape" by the people who worshipped the "First Holy Apostle" months ago — she had to consume soft foods for the first several days to allow her stomach to get used to working normally. "Kanami-san's seen as Negako-san's student; that makes the Chinese bimbo and her stalker back off. Hibiki's gone off somewhere; hopefully, the Abyssals got to that porker. Kunō and his sister have no claim on Ranma or Kanami-san. Kanami-san's on the Hayashi family register, so Ranma's fool parents and Akane-san's father can't touch her. Yeah, it's sad that Akane-san's going to lose her iinazuke...!"

"Remember what Negako-san said, Tokiko," Shitto Nijiko, Perm's twin, reminded her. "You don't fuck with a Jusenkyō curse. The only way to lose the curse once and for all is to become a parent and bring new life into the world. That incense burner that made Kanami-chan wasn't the way to do it." She shook her head. "'Sides, given how much they all just shoved Kanami-chan aside like they did, it's no wonder that Ataru won't raise a finger to help Saotome now."

"Could Tariko-chan do something?" Kumiko asked. "I mean, could Ranma-kun go through this 'gifting' thing Yizibajohei do?"

"Would you want to see Saotome with SUPERPOWERS, Kumiko-chan?!" Urayamu Takako, clone twin to "Chibi" of the Stormtroopers, Urayamu Akira, asked as her face twisted into a frown. "Given how arrogant HE is...!"

"Got that right, man," Daremo Mitsuko, twin to Daremo "Kakugari" Hideyuki, groaned as she crossed her arms.

Many of the boys grimly nodded. They had heard the stories about the "Nerima Wrecking Crew"; Ranma and his father Genma had arrived at the doorstep of the Tendō dōjō a half-month before the Tag Race began. "Maybe it's for the best," Momoe noted. "Ranma-kun's father is a thief through and through. His mother's even more loony than Mizunokōji Asuka-chan's mom, much less Ryūnosuke-kun's father!" As people flashed the "heir" of the Hamachaya sympathetic looks, Momoe blinked. "Did Ataru-kun get you something, Ryūnosuke-kun? Did he make sure your dad didn't wreck it when it was sent in?"

Fujinami Ryūnosuke laughed. "After Negako-san used that blood ki warding system her Art teaches on my bedroom?! There's no way now that Oyaji can get in there, especially with all the meson in the walls! He doesn't want to be stuck paying the school for trying to bust down the outside wall of the place!" As people winced at being reminded again that the Fujinami family was forced to reside in old storage rooms on the ground floor of the central wing of Tomobiki High across from the school store, the tomboyish fisherman's daughter then stood up, reaching for her gakuran top...which, much to everyone's surprise, didn't have the red **男** kanji on the back anymore that had been stitched there by her father Fujimi when she started attending classes the previous fall. "You can see it, can't you?" she asked as she turned to show her back to everyone.

People looked. "You got a sports bra!" Kumiko said, spotting the dark underclothes through the fabric of her classmate's shirt.

"Sports BRAS, Kumiko-san! Multiple sets!" Ryūnosuke laughed. "Tariko-san must have had a hand in getting them set up once Moroboshi bought them! Some of them have got this written on the back!" She walked over to the blackboard and picked up some chalk, writing **100** **％女性** **!** there. As people gaped at that bold statement, the tomboy snickered as she moved to sit down. "You should'a seen Oyaji freak out when I modelled them for Negako-san to make sure they fit!"

"Wait until you hear what Ataru-kun put on the matching panties!" Saiko said.

" _ **SAIKO!**_ " Shinobu gasped, stunned at such lewd behaviour from her twin.

"What?!" Koi Shinjin asked.

Shinobu's twin went up past a now-blushing Ryūnosuke to pick up a piece of chalk, then she wrote **(** **第六駆逐隊の財産** **!)** under the one that declared the tomboy "one hundred percent woman"! "'Property of the Sixth Destroyer Division'?!" Shūtarō read out loud...before his eyes widened as what that implied hit him. "Ryūnosuke-san! You mean to say that YOU'RE going to...?!"

"That's the plan, man!" Ryūnosuke affirmed. "Turns out that when he was living in Italy, Moroboshi was answering a tonne of questions about us all that the shipgirls sent him about what went down here since Lum came to town. You gotta admit, what Megane and his goons pulled with that space taxi after the Tag Race did kinda attract their attention...!"

"Oi! That was Ataru's fault!" Shinjin snapped.

"No, it was Megane's fault!" Shinobu instantly countered.

" _ **LIES!**_ " Nishijima Hiroshige snapped. He now pretty much ranked sixth after the core Stormtroopers and Shinjin when it came to being a fan of Lum's in the class; of course, Shūtarō was seen to have dropped down on that list after his engagement to Mizunokōji Asuka became known...despite his more-than-obvious desire to continue to pursue the warlord's daughter. "It was Ataru all the way! Stop trying to shovel it off on Satoshi all the time, Miyake! You're just...!"

" _ **OI! QUIT BAD-MOUTHING ANEKI, DONKEY-BOY!**_ " Saiko snapped.

Hiroshige yelped as he dropped into his seat and tried to duck clear of Shinobu's sister; knowing that Saiko was a more violent version of her twin, he knew if she wanted to do it, the woman could really put him into the hurt locker. "By the way, Tokiko-san, how did your bother get the knowledge to summon that space-taxi anyway?" Shinobu asked. "Given how flinty our alien 'friends' were when it came to giving us hard information about what was out there — look at how hard it was to make Shabe-san talk about Yiziba! — the chances of Satoshi-kun actually stumbling onto that 'ventora, ventora' thing to bring that taxi down once he got Sadoyama-sempai's friends to drag Ataru-kun into the clock tower to do the summons was totally ZERO!"

"It CAN'T be true...!" Shinjin moaned. "Tell them, Tokiko-chan!"

"Is IS true, you idiot!"

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

Then...

"What happened?" Ryūnosuke asked.

Tokiko sighed as she reached up to draw off her reading spectacles, then she moved to wipe them down with a handkerchief. "About five days after Ataru tagged Lum's horns, Onii-san got this letter. No return address. Inside was a letter from someone with the exact instructions on how to call down a space-taxi." As people gasped, Megane's sister slipped her glasses back on, then she sat back inside the chair. "It wasn't Negako-san, by the way; she wouldn't make contact with Tennō until well after the last of the oil had been cleaned up here in town and Lum was living with Ataru full-time. No one knew about the time-loop starting up thanks to Nengmek'i-sama. According to what Negako-san's found out, it was some idiot in the PSIA who panicked when he misread all the information about the Oni and decided the best thing to do to prevent them learning of the Abyssals..."

"Total information blackout," Momoe finished.

"Magically reinforced by the Kantō Magical Association," Tachiko added.

"Oh, shit...!" Ryūnosuke breathed out.

"What's worse, folks on the outside got the REAL story!" Tokiko added. "This is why Yonaga-sama and her action group are at the Toranoseishin Finances tower now. You imagine what might happen if some jerk affiliated with _**al-Qā'idah**_ or _**Dā'ish**_ or some other terrorist group from the Middle East or another country that's a big oil producer decides to 'punish' them...?!"

Gulps of wide-eyed fright filled the room...

* * *

 _ **In the clock tower, that moment...**_

A certain heavy cruiser cleared her throat as she stood to attention. "Guten Morgen, meine Freunde," she declared in her charming Austrian-accented German as she then waved to her self. "Ich, schwerer Kreuzer Prinz Eugen..."

"Yo, Little Bisko! Not all of us cool cats sprechen Deutsch."

The third of the Admiral Hipper-class yelped on hearing Long Beach's amused comment, then she flustered. "S-sorry..." she sputtered in her normal accented English before she straightened herself to start all over again. "I, heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, hereby declare this the first meeting of the Einsatzgruppe für die Liebe 'Moroboshi Ataru'..."

"Catarina-san...!" a certain large carrier moaned.

Eugen jerked again. "Um..." She coughed. "Moroboshi Ataru's Special Task Force," she said in English, which made the others in the clock tower chuckle; they all understood the TRUE meaning of the German term the cruiser used to title their task force. They had been teleported there by the world's first nuclear surface ship thanks to a handy flock of gamájun she called over from Russia to move them in unseen by staff and students...though they suspected a certain school nurse who was also a miko at the town shrine would be able to sense them. "As we know, given the horrid influence of the yōma and other creatures that were made to congregate here thanks to the people who sought to 'cage the weirdness' within the borders of Nishitōkyō while the aliens were living here, all the people who live in Tomobiki have suffered to one degree or another. We don't need to look farther than what happened to Ataru..." — here, the gathered shipgirls who were seated around the school bell were quick to sense the passionate tone in the heavy cruiser's voice as she thought about the man she had been briefly lovers with the previous November after she helped escort a convoy from America to Italy — "...to understand how that could become a serious problem, especially given that Japan's two most wealthy families live in this town."

"Feh!" Gángut sneered out. "If the people here had accepted true socialism all along after that damned war ended, those two families wouldn't be the nekul'túrnyje golovorézy they are today!" As the other shipgirls chuckled at the boisterous dreadnought's invective, the silver-haired woman made a wave with her hand. "Go on, Ekaterína Evgén'evna..."

Eugen cleared her throat again. "So, the primary issue is of course, those arrogant bullies calling themselves..." Here, she made a face. "...'Lum's Stormtroopers'." As Gángut and Jean Bart also scowled on hearing that name, the cruiser sighed. "Currently led, as we know, by Aisuru Satoshi, known more popularly as 'Megane'. Three core members with a vast majority of the boys currently attending Tomobiki High School seen as affiliate members. Kept in line mostly because of an agreement between Megane and Sadoyama Keizō, who currently leads the Tomobiki High Torture Studies Club..."

"I still can't believe there's THAT sort of club here," Missouri moaned as she shook her head. "What the hell...?"

"Do not be surprised, Marguerite-san," Yonaga stated. "Prior to the Greater East Asia War, Tomobiki had become a hotbed of State Shintō militarism. Both the Mendō and the Mizunokōji were loud supporters of the militarist movement that strove to make the nation become as powerful an empire as any of the European powers. No doubt, this Sadoyama fellow is descent of one who served in the Kempeitai, as did Mendō Genjurō; he was the commander of the Kempeitai security company that watched over Maizuru as I was being constructed." As the other shipgirls scowled on hearing that — many these days equated the Imperial Army's military police corps with the Nazi Schutzstaffel when it came to sheer brutality — the carrier crossed her arms. "So, other than beheading the traitors to humanity to deny those who would carry out a terrorist attack on Tomobiki seeking justice for that incident concerning the space taxi that Ayumu-chan so nicely cleaned up, how do we deal with them?"

"We put them on 'trial' themselves, just like they did Tarúsha when that so-called 'rose queen' came by, Jóiko Khirósiovna," Gángut stated with an evil smirk that made her scar flare on her pale skin. "Let's see how THEY like it!"

Rueful chuckles echoed through the room. "Did you get any information about how those idiots are taking to their sisters, Rinnie?" San Francisco asked as she looked at her best friend. "I mean..."

"From what Hiromi learned from Tokiko before we came here, the boys are now experiencing how much Ataru was ignored and abandoned by his own parents, Michiko," Eugen answered. "It's not sitting well with them, especially when it comes to Megane himself. Tokiko's mother has pretty much given up on trying to make him behave. Even after Tariko gave him that nice cinder block 'shower', he was wailing on and on about how much Lum was going to make everyone suffer for their 'defiance' of her. Tokiko's mother is ready to throw him out of the house; much that she cares for him deep down, she just can't tolerate how extreme he's become. And with the announcements yesterday from Tehrān and ar-Riyāḍ..."

More rueful chuckles escaped the people there. "They should not be surprised," Hibiki noted before sipping a cup of tea. The four destroyer girls of Destroyer Division Six were the only minor ships present; much that they liked Ataru as a friend and unofficial big brother figure, they had someone else in mind when it came to keeping people in Tomobiki protected. Of course, with Akatsuki and her sisters had come Tenryū and Tatsuta. "With the information flowing freely now..."

" _ **HEY, CHICKENS!**_ "

All the shipgirls perked. "Who the bloody hell is THAT?!" Hood demanded.

People looked out the west window of the tower — which had just been repaired from the incident two Saturdays before that saw the start of the final "event" of the mad "circus" that had haunted Tomobiki for a year and would see Ataru forever free of Lum — to see a considerable crowd of toughs in the slate black gakuran of Butsumetsu High School standing on the lawn close to the main gate. As the sound of many students starting to madly chatter over the arrival of this gang from the local area's "tough" school echoed from nearby classrooms, Akatsuki blinked before she pointed. "Look!" the childish destroyer called out. "They dragged those meanie-meanies that loved to pick on Ataru-kun all the time out of their homes!"

" _ **ANY OF YOU STUPID ALIEN-LOVERS GONNA SAVE THESE FOUR**_ **TRAITORS TO HUMANITY** _ **?!**_ "

As shocked and angry cries escaped the lips of many boys in the classrooms, the other shipgirls blinked before they focused their optics on the four shuddering masses of swathed bandages and pyjamas now being threatened by at least a half-dozen toughs from Butsumetsu. "Damn! Dragged them right out of bed!" Tenryū said with a nonchalant tone in her voice.

"You blame these cats for doing that to those squares, Pirate Girl?" Long Beach asked.

The light cruiser jolted at that nickname the missile cruiser just gave her as her sister giggled...

" _ **TOKIKO-CHAN! DO SOMETHING! YOU GOTTA SAVE YOUR BROTHER!**_ "

"Who the heck was THAT?!" Ikazuchi demanded.

Kitakami hummed. "Koi Shinjin. He's as anal-retentive as Megane himself when it comes to our not-so-favourite oni..."

Snickers filled the clock tower before a croaked scream escaped the quaking teenage boy by the foot of the lead Butsumetsu student. " _ **YOU'LL ALL PAY FOR THIS!**_ " Megane screeched at the top of his lungs before he madly cackled. " _ **MOROBOSHI ATARU! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, YOU BASTARD! LUM-SAN WILL STRIKE YOU DOWN AND PUT YOU INTO YOUR PLACE! YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO HIDE BEHIND THAT FLOOZY SHIPGIRL ONCE LUM-SAN COMES BACK...!**_ "

"Oh, dear! I'm going to have to ask my sister to get some of her friends from _**Yiziba**_ to go on a very enthusiastic WALK down the streets of _**Onishuto**_!" a voice then said, which made all the toughs blink before they turned around.

Megane yelped as the other Stormtroopers gasped on hearing that threat before they slowly turned around to see the two people standing at the gate, both in normal civilian clothes even if the air around the woman now standing beside Tomobiki's most (in)famous resident seemed to be alive, as if she wanted to summon her rigging and start blasting away at the four idiot boys who had caused so much trouble for her beloved fiancé. "Damn! Hey, Ataru!" Soban called out; he had stayed silent while his number two had shouted the challenge to the students of this den of alien-lovers. "Buongiorno, Signorina Roma!" he then greeted the third of the Littorio-class battleships with a graceful bow one wouldn't have expected from the rather ill-formed dwarfish man with the VERY large lips that seemed to swallow the rest of his face wholesale.

The other toughs all bowed respectfully to Roma. "Buongiorno, Signor Soban," she responded with a nod of her head before she focused her brown eyes on the arrogant fool that led the "stormtroopers" who had run roughshod over people's lives in this town for a year. "Buongiorno, Signor Sfiga...!" she then hissed out as her own glasses began to glitter dangerously.

"She just called you a 'loser'," Ataru loosely translated.

Roma smirked. "How does it feel, signor, to be at the RECEIVING end of all the pain YOU caused?!" As Megane gargled in horror, she cracked her knuckles, which made a shotgun-like sound thanks to the metaphysical hardened steel that had gone into her hull; doing that made Perm, Kakugari and Chibi literally piss themselves as they realized THEY were the ones in danger now. "Ever since YOU betrayed the whole HUMAN RACE when you decided to call down that troia from Uru...?"

Ataru's smile turned lethal. "She just called Lum a 'slut'."

" _ **WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT...?!**_ "

Everyone gaped as Megane seemed to explode with outrage while he tried to surge to his feet. As many of the boys in the school all shouted their own outrage at Roma's insult — the acoustics in the school grounds seemed to grab voices and throw them all over the place — Ataru shook his head. "Oi, girls!" he called out in the direction of the clock tower. "Why don't you c'mon out?! Since you all came here to torture these idiots, you might as well come over and get in on the fun!"

"My thanks, Ataru-san!"

Megane turned a very interesting shade of grey as he slowly turned...

...before he croaked in horror as the ONE shipgirl that NO ONE in Tomobiki wanted to get on the bad side of now leapt down from the clock tower belfry to land on the ground, causing the whole area to quake slightly as the metaphysical mass of an 84,000 tonne large armoured aircraft carrier jolted the underlying bedrock hard. As many of the students screamed in shock on seeing Yonaga once more on the school grounds, the other shipgirls who had been in the clock tower all moved to jump down to the ground themselves. At the windows of his own classroom, Mifune Hideyuki could only gape in shock. "Holy fuck...!" he gasped as friends in Class 2-7 stared at him. "Yonaga, Long Beach, Zuikaku, Missouri, Jean Bart, Hood, Gángut, Prinz Eugen, San Francisco, Kitakami, Ōi, Tenryū, Tatsuta and all of Destroyer Division Six?! What are THEY doing here?!"

"Everyone save Yonaga-sama, Mama Cass, Tenryū, Tatsuta and the little ones met Ataru when he was in Taranto! He was going on dates with them!" another otaku said from Hideyuki's right, which made people hearing this gasp. "Damn! Looks like Ataru's got a whole tonne of shipgirl STORMTROOPERS! No way in Hell that Megane and his crew could stand up to that!"

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

Then...

"'Stormtroopers'...?"

That was Prinz Eugen, who was scowling as she glared death at Megane and his friends. As all four boys shuddered in horror while the heavy cruiser seemed to come alive with outrage, she cracked her gloved hands, which also made a powerful shotgun-like sound that made people wince. "You...erbärmliche, dreckige Sauen...!" she hissed out, which made San Francisco wince; she had heard her friend swear in her native language quite often, so she understood what Eugen was implying.

Ataru helped out. "She just called you 'pathetic, dirty pigs'," he translated before a cruel smile crossed his face as his eyes seemed to sparkle. "In fact, she just implied that all four of you are _**burakumin**_!"

The Stormtroopers gaped in horror as many of their peers in the school building began to hiss and whisper at each other. As Ataru smirked — he knew very well how good the rumour mill could work at this school, having been at the receiving end of what that rumour mill could transmit many times — Megane shuddered as he tried to summon what strength he could so he could finally put down the bastard that had hurt poor Lum so many times and regain control of this mad situation. "What the hell does that make YOU, Ataru?!" he said with a slowly-growing cant in his voice that indicated that what little sanity he had left was quickly ebbing away. "Huh?! I'll bet your ancestors were butchers or undertakers themselves...!"

He shrieked in horror as the sharp edge of a katana kissed his throat. "You have no right to dare cast doubt on Ataru-san's ancestry, Satoshi-san," a certain carrier said as he robotically turned to stare up into Yonaga's impassive face. "Ataru-san's family is descent from Shōtoku Tennō herself!" As all the people hearing this gasped in shock at that revelation, she smiled. "The only 'taint' in his blood is that of the yūjo that is his mother Kinshō. Given how much the...oh, how does that modern phrase go again...?" she wondered as her free hand reached up to allow her to scratch her chin in wonderment.

"The 'school doorknob', Big Y?" Long Beach wondered.

"How about 'school slut'?" Ataru proposed.

"Perfect for that troia!" Roma muttered.

As the larger shipgirls laughed, Akatsuki sighed. "Sempai! An elephant lady...!"

"'Elegant'!" Hibiki, Ikazuchi and Inazuma called out to correct their sister.

The eldest of their class awked. "Well, still, a lady shouldn't say such mean swear words!" she then admonished...before she sighed. "Even if the meanie-meanie creep deserves it for all the times she hurt poor Ataru-kun!"

"Da!" Hibiki chanted.

"Hai!" both Ikazuchi and Inazuma affirmed with nods of their heads.

"Don't worry about it, Tsukiko-chan!"

Akatsuki gazed at Ataru. "What do you mean, Ataru-kun?"

He gave her a knowing look. "She's going to grow old and die alone, remember?"

The raven-haired destroyer blinked before she nodded. "Hai!"

"Withering on the vine, Ataru-san?" Yonaga asked.

"Much that it hurt a lot of our troops back then, it worked, Yoiko-san."

She sighed. "True..."

" _ **AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! THEY'RE DEAD!**_ "

Everyone yelped on hearing that screech from the direction of the greenhouse. Yonaga looked over, then moved past Missouri and Jean Bart to see what was going on. The other shipgirls quickly followed the carrier as they went over to join the screaming freshman girls who had been moving to cultivate tomatoes for today's lunch. "What has happened?!" the seventh carrier demanded before she was nearly swamped by the wailing freshman as they hugged her for dear life. "Ladies...!"

Tenryū ran past her to look inside...then she stopped, her good eye widening in shock on seeing the small mound of corpses there, all dressed in the wrestler uniforms with capes of the school's torture studies club. "Damn...!" she hissed out as Tatsuta came over to look herself. "Looks like it's starting...!" she muttered. "Ataru! You got to see this!"

Ataru came up, Roma at his side. Both looked in, then blinked. For the battleship, it was no different than the times she had seen the carnage unleashed on coastal towns back home; all shipgirls soon become VERY hardened to the sight of mutilated human bodies once they deploy on missions to protect the coastlines where helpless civilians lived. As for her fiancé, he could only shake his head, not the least bit surprised that Sadoyama Keizō and his friends had faced someone who had been quite handy with some sort of butcher's knife. As he cursed once more the fact that he had acquired a virtual tsunami of knowledge when it came to torture techniques thanks to his adopted older sister having resided in his subconscious mind for a decade, he hissed out, "Damn!" He then looked at Tatsuta. "Tadako-san, you want to go call the MPs over in Nerima?"

She blinked. "Not the local police?"

"We can't trust ANYONE in authority in this town, remember?"

The younger of her class of cruisers nodded before she headed off. As Tenryū moved to get her "kindergarten" to properly cordon off the area until the military police arrived to investigate what happened, Yonaga finally separated herself from the moaning freshman girls; the others in the "action group" sent to Tomobiki were now moving to provide comfort. The large carrier walked over to stare into the greenhouse before a wry smile crossed her face. "Someone was artistic."

"Hashāashīn," Ataru muttered.

Roma looked over. "Maryam al-Mūsa's group?"

"No, their 'fans' who also say they're Master Hasan's 'students', Tesoro." He then hummed before looking over. "Soban!"

"Yo?!" the leader of Butsumetsu High's largest gang called back.

"Drag those four idiots here! I want them to see this! Watch out! It's ugly!"

As students overhearing this began to scream while others fired heated questions at their peers, the Butsumetsu toughs came over, humping the moaning Stormtroopers over the shoulders of the larger members. Once they were close, Ataru reached over to yank Megane off the shoulder of Soban's number two, then he twisted the leader of the Stormtroopers around so he could stare directly at the mutilated but still recognizable face of Sadoyama Keizō. " _ **LOOK, DAMN YOU!**_ " Ataru bellowed as Megane howled in horror at the sight of his first ally in trying to get Lum for himself now nothing more than shattered bone and shredded flesh. " _ **LOOK AT WHAT**_ **YOU** _ **HELPED CAUSE, YOU FUCKING, ARROGANT FOOL! THEY KNEW! THEY ALL KNEW**_ **WHO** _ **MADE SURE THAT LUM WOULD STAY ON EARTH LAST YEAR! HE WAS FIRST!**_ " As he tossed Megane onto the ground in disgust, Ataru turned away. "Keep it up...and you'll be _**next**_ , Satoshi!" he hissed out.

He walked away, Roma following him as the others from Butsumetsu moved to ensure the other Stormtroopers saw the corpses. As they did that, Megane shuddered before an eerie, insane laugh began to escape him...

* * *

 _ **In geosynchronous orbit at the 139th Meridian east of Greenwich (over the Pacific Ocean 150 kilometres east of north from Maffin on New Guinea in Indonesia), aboard NSI**_ **Roma** _ **, two hours after lunch...**_

"Signor Moroboshi, all your former peers have just finished lunch."

Ataru looked over his shoulder at the senior officer now aboard one of Italy's first starships, Primo Tenente di Vascello Francesco Serra. "Grazie, Signor. Did you get the signal down to Namimori and alert Tsunayoshi about this?"

"The Vongola Decimo signalled us as soon as the first news alert went out about what happened to Signor Sadoyama and his friends on NHK, Signor. The materializer crew just beamed the Decimo and his advisors aboard. All of the I Prescelti Sette signalled in once they learned what happened, almost at the same time the Decimo called in." 1º TV Serra had relatives serving the Famiglia Chiavarone; he himself had Lightning flames and had been one of many metahuman would-be mafioso who joined the Italian Navy to replenish the ranks after Blood Week in late 2011 that heralded the coming of shipgirls and the onset of the general Abyssal War. "Given the volatility of what might soon happen in Tomobiki, all the major famiglias are now very concerned that this might eventually spill over into areas they are concerned with, especially concerning the considerable levels of influence both the Famiglia Mendō and the Famiglia Mizunokōji could exert in this situation."

Ataru nodded. During his time in Italy, he made major inroads with the "civil" elements of the Cosa Nostra and their allies in other nations, reaffirming major alliances forged long ago between those who saw themselves as guardians and users of Dying Will Flames and the last elements of the Tenchiaiki Jūkazoku who had served the Imperial Throne of Japan for a millennia and were practitioners of Saikō Jinseijutsu-ryū; such alliances had fallen by the wayside thanks to the death of his grandmother Nagaiwakai and his father's flat-out refusal to have anything to do with the "weird" side of his own clan that helped shatter the surviving family over time. "I'm sure Ammiraglio Bergamini has already ordered that the 'civilians' aren't to get into restricted areas?" As Serra nodded with a wry smirk, he sat back in the admiral's chair placed next to the captain's chair in the centre of _Roma_ 's spacious main bridge. "Let them look around. I'm sure Kyōya will be happy to bite them to death if they get too rambunctious. They need to learn the truth of what life is like. Much that I applaud the people in the PSIA for what they did..."

"Their ignorance will kill them."

Serra nodded as the living personification of the third of the Littorio-class walked over to warmly kiss her fiancé before taking her seat in the captain's chair. "I relieve you, Tenente Serra," Roma then bade.

He nodded. "I stand relieved, Capitano Ansaldo. Excuse me, please."

With that, he headed to one of the gangways to return to officer country several decks down in the forward superstructure. Roma gazed on the status board hanging from the deckhead in front of her station, which reported things like power status, ship's position, weapons and defensive preparedness. "No signal from Ceres so far?" she asked as she gazed on Ataru.

"No, not yet. Danu knows to scream the alarm the instant anyone decides to break treaty and send a ship through Neptunian space towards us," he noted as a churlish smile crossed his face while he clasped his hands under his chin in contemplation. During his time on Okusei before and after the Liberation of the Avalonians, Ataru had studied all the intergalactic treaties concerning Earth and its unique place in the local cluster, sharing a solar system with a known space-faring civilization now forced to reside on Neptune's largest moon of Triton. He had been quite shocked to learn that no alien warship could enter the Sol system — especially passing the Ceres orbit line — without permission of Oyuki's father King Fuyu; of course, the "invasion" by the Urusians the previous April had been a "no choice" scenario forced on the leaders of the Galactic Federation because of Ipraedies interest in the third world of Sol. Ironically, Babara de Esterchild, the nanny of Ataru's other "fiancée", had obtained permission from Oyuki's father to bring the patrol monitor RENS _Rose Emperor_ to Earth before the whole thing with Elle had started earlier in the month; that, of course, was obtained PRIOR to the wedding invitations going out.

Given that Ellsians were genetically descent from the Sagussans...!

"Any alien herbivores about to be foolish?"

Ataru smirked as Roma giggled. "Hey, Kyōya. How are the fights in Namimori?"

A snort escaped the raven-haired leader of the "disciplinary committee" at Namimori Junior High School. Like all the Tomobiki High students, Hibari Kyōya and his friends from Namimori in eastern Aichi near Toyoda had come aboard in their school uniforms. "Too many herbivores," Kyōya stated. "A pity that we're too far inland from any bay. I would welcome a chance to fight the sea carnivores should they ever try to again initiate something like Blood Week. Mere visits to Mafia Land..."

He jerked as a silver-haired missile slammed into his leg, grasping that limb with the strength of a barnacle on a ship's hull. " _ **AH! KYŌYA-NIICHAN! SAVE HOPPŌ!**_ " a certain installation princess wailed at the top of her lungs.

Kyōya looked down, his face softening ever so slightly at the sight of the crying Hoppō. Having long known what had befallen the child-shaped installation princess three years ago, the top delinquent in Namimori and the Cloud guardian to Sawada Tsunayoshi had a soft spot for Nagato's adopted daughter. "Who is attempting to hurt you, Little One?" he calmly asked...

Ataru moaned. "Hoppō-chan, I did warn you...!"

Hoppō yelped as she let go of Kyōya's leg, then she waved her arms in frustration. "Ataru-niichan didn't tell Hoppō that Zia Roma's starship had a WINGED ALIEN CAT aboard! Not one as big as TIGER! Why didn't Ataru-niichan warn Hoppō?!"

"A winged cat as big as a tiger?" Kyōya asked.

"A sandpanther," Ataru provided.

That made the younger man's grey eyes light up. "Ah! Old Sagussa's apex carnivore! The Avalonians in Namimori told me about them. I've never seen one before." He gazed down at Hoppō. "What did this one do, Little One?"

Hoppō shuddered as a sick look crossed her face. "Alien cat...LICKED Hoppō!" She rubbed her gloved hands over her hair. "Eew! Hoppō has alien cat germs! Why did crystal-bloods bring alien cats to Earth?! Even alien kitties licked Hoppō!"

"You're too _white_ , Hoppō-chan!" Ataru stated, which made the installation princess blink. "Something that white on Sagussa after the Clone Rights War was only seen in certain breeds of stormwalkers, the big herbivores that sandpanthers always hunted for the meat and the water they stored in their bodies because too many species had died. Don't worry; they know you're as sentient as any of their 'pets' aboard the ship. You're just a very interesting toy for the little ones to play with."

Nagato's adopted daughter gaped at him, then she moaned. "Hoppō not sure what to think about that, Ataru-niichan..."

 _RRRRRWWWWL...?!_

She yelped, then turned as a too-cute-for-words furry thing about the size of the average house cat trotted out of the shadows from the direction of one of the navigation stations, her stubby fur-lined bat-like wings folded against her body as her large roundish head turned to and fro as she noted new scents in her territory; Ataru was quick to note she had just got up from a nap. As Kyōya tried not to gape at such a sight — even he could tell that this being would grow up to be an apex carnivore in due time — she paused as her large set of amber eyes focused on Hoppō's glowing crimson ones for a moment, her whiskers twitching in curiosity. After a moment of the two staring at each other, the sandpanther kitten purred contently as she walked up to the child-like Abyssal, then she leapt up to land on Hoppō's head. As she squealed in surprise, the kitten turned around to plop herself on that mass of silver hair, her nose sniffing the simple shampoo the Abyssal used to clean that mass when she took a shower. That movement made Hoppō squeal. "No! Stupid alien kitty, don't tickle Hoppō! Stop!" She croaked as the kitten began to lick those strands of steel-hardened hair. "Eew! Stop licking Hoppō! Hoppō doesn't want alien cat germs...!"

"Kawaii so...!"

Hoppō jerked, then she moaned. "Mama no baka...!"

Ataru and Roma turned...

...and sure enough, there was a totally insensate Nagato now on her knees staring in total bliss at her cute daughter making "friends" with a really cute alien kitty cat with wings. Beside her stood her girlfriend, who was shaking her head in amusement at the battleship's "Nagamon" antics. As Kyōya stifled a snicker at the sight of the normally-stoic Nagato effectively defeated by something so kawaii — which was an attitude he could emphasize with in a way...though he was proud to admit that he was far more disciplined than Hoppō's mother when it came to such things — Ataru sighed. "Cuteness: Infinity/Nagamon: Zero. It gets her _**every**_ time." He then gazed on the second of the Lexington-class. "Saw her, Dionne-san?"

Saratoga blushed madly. "Well, it's rather hard NOT to notice...!"

Kyōya blinked in confusion, then noting where Roma was currently pointing off to port, he turned to see a beautifully lit space aircraft carrier looking like a very modernized version of Saratoga herself — again, at TEN times the original scale, which made United States Starship _Saratoga_ an eye-popping 2,707 metres long! — floating about a hundred kilometres off NSI _Roma_ 's beam in a line-abreast formation with the Italian starship. Unlike the shipgirl namesake of one of the most famous battles of the American War of Independence, the starship version didn't have the well-known "E" mark of the Battle Efficiency Award on her funnel just yet; on the starship, such a construct was used as an intake valve for dark matter and other outer space particles whenever she was at sub-light speeds to augment her internal fuel needs. Noting that USS _Saratoga_ had a mixed armament that combined cruiser-level guns by the superstructure with anti-aircraft guns and missile launchers on the edges of the flight deck — including outer-space versions of the Phalanx CIWS — Kyōya could only nod in approval as he wondered how space versions of Japanese aircraft carriers, much less the Italian standard carriers Aquila and Sparviero, would appear.

"Okay..." the American veteran of Crossroads breathed out. "I'm putting my foot down now." She then stared down at her nearly-insensate lover. "No kitties on _Nagato_ , Reiko," she sternly declared, which made Nagato croak in horror.

Pained tears flowed down the battleship's cheeks. "Meanie...!"

And over she went! Hoppō moaned as the others laughed at the sight of one of the Big Seven brought down so easily...

* * *

 _ **The ship's main cafeteria, that moment...**_

" _ **WHY NOT?!**_ "

The elder mother of the Avalonians now aboard _Roma_ , Triela Hilshire — she was an adult replica of the like-named character from the manga/anime _Gunslinger Girl_ — smirked as she stared in amusement at Koi Shinjin. "Because we don't want to risk losing the ship to that sort of idiocy, Signor Koi," she said in Italian; the ship had an omniversal translation field that would allow their guests from Japan to perfectly understand her. "Not only that, given how much my people utterly loathe our former 'masters', they would take the chance to go to Uru and see the 'goddess' KILLED for all her actions and inactions that ended up hurting so many, both on Earth and elsewhere." As all the boys who had confronted her concerning a trip to Uru gargled in horror at that threat, she shook her head as she stood up to return to her watch. "Don't bet on trying to persuade Signor Moroboshi to force us to go to Uru. He's far stronger than ALL of you fools, COMBINED! Do you really wish to face a man who has _**killed**_ FIVE Abyssal princesses — to say anything of their accompanying fleets — in the last half-year?"

With an amused titter, she walked away, leaving a chorus of shell-shocked boys behind. Watching this scene from a nearby table were several people from various nations, all of whom had overhead that conversation with various levels of disgust at how blind the former peers of their saviour's last host/adopted brother really were concerning how things ran in the world. "To believe that the Japanese intelligence and magical agencies were just TOO successful when it came to blocking news of the Abyssals from getting to the aliens," Fēng Yúnlián said as he shook his head before sipping his tea. The strongest Flame-using martial artist in the world — known more commonly as "Fon" to friends and admirers alike — then smirked as several of the boys, including Shinjin, began to sob as they bewailed the end of the world. "How bad was it in that city, anyway?"

"Quite intense, Fon," Loden Sapienti — "Verde" of the current generation of the I Prescelti Sette — mused as he held up a modified cell phone to do a quick scan of the boys nearby. As several of them were comforted by freshman girls who were more sympathetic towards their feelings, the bespectacled scientist shook his head. "The levels of residual magic and ki in them are quite intense. What did Signora Negako tell you about how the ley lines flowed through that town, Fon?"

"Twenty separate lines, all intersecting under the Tarōzakura Hill at the south end of Tomobiki's town borders; the one with that very old cherry blossom tree growing there," Fon replied. "I haven't been there myself, though..."

"Can you go check it out?" Renato Sinclair asked.

Eyes locked on the man known as "Reborn". "What do you think the problem is?" Falco "Colonnello" Guerriero asked.

Reborn's eyebrow arched as he noted his long-time rival was keeping a hand on his newly-acquired Lawgiver, now in its hip holster. The former secondo capo scelto of the Italian Navy who served as an instructor for new recruits of the Comando Raggruppamento Subacquei e Incursori Teseo Tesei had fallen in love with the Zephyrite-built pistol when Moroboshi Negako acquired it for him after she used her skills to shatter the Arcobaleno curse on him and his friends the previous November. Remembering what Colonnello did to "Checker-face" after Negako tracked down the bastard so the Arcobaleno could get their revenge on him, the World's Greatest Hitman smirked; he could guess now that the current independent combat instructor would gladly finish what the idiots from the Middle East started sometime last night. There was nothing wrong with a little "shock therapy" when it came to total morons...and Tomobiki seemed to have its quota of such idiots and even more.

"The famiglias were getting antsy over the potential influence the Mendō and Mizunokōji would have once the time paradox issue was done away with and Tomobiki would rejoin the wider world," the half-English, half-Italian hitman and current home tutor for Sawada Tsunayoshi warned. As the others nodded — they knew that Reborn was speaking now of the Vongola and their allies — he gazed to one side, where the descendant of the Vongola Primo was seated across from Mendō Shūtarō, both chatting away rather amicably. Naturally, Tsunayoshi's closest aides Gokudera Hayato and Yamamoto Takeshi were there, both keeping a sharp eye out on the heir of Japan's richest family; much to Reborn's personal delight, Mendō Tachiko was also present, ready to cut in in case Shūtarō lost it should he learn something he definitely wouldn't like. "They know about us even if they're not fully enclosed by Omertà; that's all thanks to the ninja clans who affiliated with them after the Meiji Restoration. We all know ninjutsu-ka found it quite easy to avoid dealing with groups like the Vindice and the ICW."

Laughter escaped the others as they remembered the many times various magicals tried to go after flame users out of some mistaken belief that such was some odd form of soul magic; such was seen as seriously circumscribed if not totally illegal across most of Europe and in the United States. Fortunately for all the "metahuman" mafia — who had pretty much established themselves and the rules that governed their society during the chaos of the Napoleonic Wars, well before the unification of Italy and the establishment of a single magical ministry — local magicals in Italy understood the difference between soul magic and Dying Will Flames. Even better, Heather Thompkins — the Québec-born member of the War Hawks now commanded Canada's magical battleship squadron — had been happy to forge an agreement with the Vindice when it came to jurisdictional boundaries, one which was dutifully kept by her successor, Professor Albus Dumbledore. _Much to the horror of the 'stalebloods' who are now watching their precious security statute die right before their very eyes!_ Reborn then mused before he sipped the beautiful espresso that one of _Roma_ 's Terran-born cooks had been happy to prepare for him.

"Not that the ICW had much of a chance to get into Japan in the first place," Colonello's girlfriend Lal Mirch noted as she sipped her own coffee. "Even before Marshal Yomigawa's time, that was the case."

"I can imagine the screams in Geneva now," Fon noted.

"If they're like the screams those boys want to make now, it must have been hard on Ammiraglio Thompkins' ears," Aria Neroni mused as she tried not to look nauseous from her telepathy picking up the rolling thoughts of the boys nearby as they hissed and snapped at each other while trying to decide what to do in the face of an overwhelming opposition towards having Redet Lum come back to Earth. "Much less Professore Dumbledore's ears." As the others chuckled, she then nodded thanks as Fon reached over to gently manipulate some of her body's meridian points to help alleviate the pain she was now experiencing.

More chuckles escaped the others of the I Prescelti Sette...

...before a loud klaxon began to blare, that accompanied by a voice calling the ship to battle alert. As the students looked around in confusion, the former Arcobaleno blinked before they looked at each other. "We're going into BATTLE?!" Colonnello exclaimed as he sensed the ship's impulse engines flare to life, sending _Roma_ surging away from her parking orbit. "How?! Even if this thing's automated to Hell and back, there's no way we can take on any of those jokers out there in this state!"

"Hopefully, the technology gap between the Avalonians and our would-be enemies out there will be enough to keep them away until Miss Wakefield gets that shielding system fully active," Verde stated as all of them got to their feet and raced for the main doors. "Still, despite his many successes against the Abyssals, Ataru doesn't understand how to direct a warship."

"And Roberta doesn't know how to fight in three dimensions," Reborn stated as the Arcobaleno raced into the hallway for the nearest turbolift station to get them up to the main bridge, they feeling the starship's engines go to full power.

Colonnello stopped before he stepped out of the cafeteria, gazing on one of the cooks. "Kora! Keep these kids here and safe!" he barked out as he pointed to the large mass of Tomobiki High students. "They don't leave until I tell you!"

"Sì, mio Capo!" the sottocapo di prima classe called back. "Buona fortuna!"

The former COMSUBIN trainer nodded as he raced off, leaving behind a chorus of very stunned students...save for the middle school crowd from Namimori, who looked as calm as ever. Miyake Shinobu was quick to notice. "Tsunayoshi-kun, aren't you worried about them?!" she demanded as the cooks closed and sealed the doors, with one of the taking guard position there.

Tsunayoshi smiled. "It's alright, Sempai. They're so well-skilled and powerful, they even won Negako-san's respect. They'll do good against whoever is coming." He gazed on the man Colonnello had spoken to. "Can you tell us who it is, Chief?"

The older man perked. "I'll find out, Signor Decimo."

With that, he headed to his office. Watching him go, Hayato moaned, scratching the back of his head. "Ah, man! Hibari's on the bridge with Ataru-sempai and Roma-sensei! He's gonna get all the fun if we have to go into battle!"

"Oh, relax, Gokudera-kun!" Tsunayoshi playfully scolded. "Knowing Hibari-kun, he'll be enough to take care of whoever this is without Reborn and the others getting involved." He then hummed. "If they DO get involved...!"

"Does anyone know a good funeral march?" his would-be wife Miura Haru asked.

The others from Namimori all laughed as their older counterparts from Tomobiki stared wide-eyed at them. Save for Shūtarō and Tachiko, who both had very grim looks on their faces as they gazed sympathetically at their new friends...

* * *

 _ **The bridge, minutes later...**_

"Stinky, stupid aliens! Hoppō can't wait to bite into stinky, stupid aliens!"

A low growl escaped the sandpanther kitten — who had been named "Dormiglione" by the ship's caretaker staff — as she, still on Hoppō's head, glared at the main view screen at the forward end of _Roma_ 's vast bridge. It now showed what, to the uninitiated, would appear to be a glowing blooming rose flower complete with sepals and a receptacle...if one ignored the glittering lights and other accoutrements all over the hull that indicated this was a very large starship, at least a kilometre in width. Seeing that, the Arcobaleno could only shake their heads as they stood close to Nagato and Saratoga, gazing upon the approaching patrol monitor. "Benedetta Maria! That is one very beautiful ship no matter what!" Reborn noted.

"Yeah, the Ellsians are artists," Ataru noted as he stared in amusement at the image of the RENS _Rose Emperor_ , the very ship that had come to Earth earlier in the month to herald the start of the LAST insane adventure he would have to endure within Tomobiki and begin the phase of his life where he gained final control over his destiny. "Don't let what the news networks say about Amora fool you, Sensei. They're very good people and the most advanced technologically of the Federation worlds. If they didn't have an issue with someone mentally pulling Amora's strings, I'd actually welcome their interacting with us."

"Indeed, you're right, Ataru," a strange voice echoed from nearby, making everyone gaze upon the chimaera known to the Varia as "Mammon Esper" and to the other Arcobaleno simply as "Viper". "We can sense the young queen now on the main pilotage of that ship. She is eager — No! DESPERATE! — to see you! Her inner soul is crying for help and she believes you are the only one who can help her in the end." Zhe — Ataru always used the Hustari pentagender forms of pronouns and adjectives whenever he encountered someone like the telepath christened Gabriela Abate — then smirked as zhe crossed zher arms. "Whoever is doing this only pays small attention to this poor girl. It would be easy for us to remove the bond and allow this flower's true soul to finally blossom." Zhe's eyes then narrowed under zher hood. "Still, there are many others who actually see their loyalty more to the puppeteer and not the puppet. And there is a name: Sheko." As Ataru moaned on hearing that, the Mist officer of the Varia gazed upon him. "Ah! Quite the powerful one, is he? This might be a problem..."

"He is still a herbivore," Kyōya noted. "One possessing a woman destined to be queen to manipulate her people deserves to be bitten to death!" As Hoppō snarled in agreement and the shipgirls on the bridge nodded, he gently gripped his fighting tonfā. "A pity the puppeteer is not here. I would gladly teach him the proper manners when dealing with small animals."

"He's Yehisrite, Kyōya. The concept of 'mercy to small animals' kinda escapes them all," Ataru warned. "Granted, Sheko is quite the leader and has kept hold of Kyotos for a century, but too many people in his realm are getting a little too tired of the excesses he's allowed to happen. Problem is, he's SO experienced, it would take quite the warrior to kill him and steal his throne." As the others gaped in surprise at him, he winked. "Yehisrite inheritance laws can be pretty strange, minna..."

"Joy," Reborn breathed out.

A _beep!_ echoed over the bridge. " _Fratello Maggiore, the_ Rose Emperor _is signalling us now_ ," the voice of _Roma_ 's central computer reported. " _They're demanding we stand aside and allow them to transit to Earth._ "

"Ask why they are here, Piccolo," Ataru ordered.

" _Just a moment._ "

Silence fell over the bridge as the small glitter of light that indicated the _Rose Emperor_ grew larger to the visible eye. NSI _Roma_ was now angling herself to the starboard to allow all three of her main cannon gunhouses to be able to bear on the approaching patrol monitor. Roma had ordered her starship-self to load solid-shot rounds — each of those weighing 77.4 tonnes, could fly at one-half light speed and could reach out to over five million kilometres in the near-vacuum of space — into the firing chambers of the nine Cannone da 381/50 Ansaldo M1934NG space naval rifles the starship bore as her main armament. Such shells would make quick work of both _Rose Emperor_ 's deflector shields and her very unarmoured hull; since starship combat in the local cluster was mostly confined to using energy weapons or short-range missiles, something with such kinetic power would punch through the defences of almost all starships that could challenge the likes of _Roma_.

That had been the primary reason the Avalonians had built her in that manner.

Never mind the all-too many amusing connotations to a certain anime series that one of Nagato's fleet mates utterly despised to the depths of her soul...much to the shock of fans of that particular show worldwide.

" _Fratello Maggiore, they refuse to state their reasons why_ ," _Roma_ 's computer then declared. " _Not only that, given the many genetic similarities between Ellsians and Avalonians, the screening system Signorina Primo Pensiero Padrona Wakefield has now active at the Ceres orbit line won't stop the_ Rose Emperor _from passing that line if they choose to charge towards Earth._ "

"Rose People are _**crystal-bloods**_?!" Hoppō exclaimed.

"Calm yourself, Piccolo," Viper then declared as zhe mentally reached out. "We will deal with this poor child..."

* * *

 _ **The bridge of the Royal Ellsian Navy Starship**_ **Rose Emperor** _ **, that moment...**_

" _ **UUUURRRRK...!**_ "

Hearing that gargled cry, people spun around to gaze at the special admiral's chair placed in the centre of the patrol monitor's main pilotage. "YOUR MAJESTY!" the elderly nanny to the current Rose Queen screamed in horror as the woman born Amora de Rosenbach dropped to the deck, gripping the sides of her head as a keen wail escaped her lips. " _ **AMORA!**_ " Babara de Esterchild cried out as several of the people on the bridge immediately raced to their leader's side.

A gargled croak escaped the sixty-fourth successor to the founder of the modern Rose Kingdom of Elle who had united his planet a millennia before as she felt something with the power of pure sulphuric acid wash through her mind, ripping away deeply-implanted mental triggers that began to badly influence every decision she would make after she was crowned Queen shortly after experiencing her first blood. Decisions that, for the most part, came to affect many people on Elle and other planets when a project originally meant to save people from the most vicious disease known to intergalactic medicine was turned into a perverted "harem" of "cute boys" that the Rose Queen had collected and frozen to "keep their love fresh", reaching almost a hundred thousand when she reunited with her "honey" after an eleven year separation.

A separation that turned a childhood playmate from Earth into the single icon of freedom for the long suffering archaeologist's daughter who had become a mere plaything to one of the most brutal yet cunning war leaders in the local galaxy.

A frightening man who could and had sacrificed lives in droves to make sure that none who might oppose him would dare challenge him, even the despised yet nearly-extinct Goa'uld to the idiotic Ipraedies who were planet Elle's current "foes".

A man who might have achieved the highest accolades of honour on his ancient homeworld of Yehisril...

...yet thanks to a powerful psionic bond with a Vosian master tracker who now ruled that planet with a fist of iron...!

Elle blinked as a strange ringing noise echoed from nearby, making her look...

"Honey...!"

Everyone turned, gaping in shock on seeing the man they once saw simply as a girl-chasing selfish idiot now standing calmly on the bridge of the Queen's flagship, a very concerned look on his face as he stared at her. As many of the people then recalled the incredible story of the vicious battle that Moroboshi Ataru had been a part of a year before on a planet named Okusei — with some shuddering as they remembered the images of the hideous half-machine THING that he could now transform into — the man in question moved immediately to kneel close to his would-be wife. "Hey! Easy there...!" he gently soothed as he moved to help her sit back up on the deck. "Sorry for the quick mental meatball surgery, but there was no way I was going to deal with you as long as that old idiot was pulling your strings." He then looked at the image of NSI _Roma_ on the main view screen. "Oi, Sensei! You're getting top dollar for this little job as soon as we're back on Earth!"

«And you remind us once again of the reason we just LOVE to do business with your famiglia, Ataru,» the voice of the Mist officer of the Varia echoed in everyone's heads, making the people on the bridge perk. «By the way...»

Ataru smirked as his left eye glowed. " **I feel it...** " he muttered in a booming voice that made Elle wince before he turned...

...then a bolt of near star-bright energy lashed out to punch through the heart of a shuddering middle-aged woman who had been in the midst of drawing her side-arm. As the woman croaked after her heart was literally burned out of her chest, Ataru sighed. " **Your ki and your emotions are** _ **open books**_ **to me. I don't need to become the Master's Avatar directly to** _ **not**_ **sense it.** " As the woman collapsed on the deck, Ataru looked at at _Roma_ 's image. " **Sensei, a ten thousand dollar bonus every time you kill a traitor to Amora here who are now aboard this ship via a nice and FATAL stroke; Onē-san showed you were to aim for when she freed you of the curse. Much that I don't want to deny Dureko and his friends some fun...** "

"I'll add to that bonus, Serray Viper," Elle then stated, the strength in her voice coming back as the aura of command she often displayed made her crew gape in relieved awe that their queen was fully in control now. "I believe gold is quite an accepted currency on Earth. How does _**five hundred Earth tonnes**_ per kill sound to an expert telepath such as yourself, Serray?!"

«Then it will be a total of a _**hundred thousand**_ tonnes, Your Majesty,» Viper's voice echoed in everyone's head. «One of them was moving to detonate the singularity core of your ship's warp drive system once she learned that Ataru was aboard.»

"Done!" Elle then gazed on the ship's captain, Anna du Kohln, the same woman Ataru met over Tomobiki over a year ago in his personal timeline. "Have the bodies thrown off the ship, then clear all computer records of their existence, Captain. When we get back to Baran, make sure someone does the same to the master records there. Make them totally disappear."

"As you command, My Queen," the captain said with a curt nod of her head...

...before the sensory officer gasped. "My Queen! Sensors just detected a Kashin-class battlewagon having warped into the system. ID beacon makes her UDFS _Repia_ out of Toshitto. She's on an intercept course, shields up and weapons armed!"

Ataru spun around, his eye no longer glowing. "Pilot, get this ship next to _Roma_! You can pass through the screen the Academician placed at the Ceres orbit line! They can't if they don't want their warp drive to go up like a Roman candle!"

Elle's eyes widened. "Do as Honey says!"

"At once, My Queen!" the helm officer called out.

As the _Rose Emperor_ engaged her sub-light drive to approach the Terran battleship inside the invisible "no go" line set up by Yiziba's greatest genius — reborn as a Californian teenager living in a suburb of Los Angeles named Elizabeth Wakefield — a crackling noise echoed over the bridge speakers. " _Rose Emperor_ , this is the Urusian battlewagon _Repia_!" a growling man's voice echoed over the bridge as Ataru sent a pleading look to the ship's communications officer, getting a helpless shrug in return. "You are in restricted space! Turn around this instant and withdraw to your home territory or it's war!"

Ataru closed his eyes. «Tesoro, shut him up, please!»

«Done, Amore!»

A belching screeching noise then echoed over the bridge before blissful silence fell. "You're JAMMING them?!" the communications officer exclaimed as she stared in awed disbelief at her queen's would-be husband.

"Nice to have the technological advantage in this case," Ataru said with a wink. «Tesoro, given them a three-gun salvo.»

«Firing now.»

The people on the _Rose Emperor_ 's bridge gasped in shock as heat blooms appeared at the muzzles of the three space rifles in the forward gun house on _Roma_ 's weather deck. The patrol monitor then rocked slightly as three 77.4 tonne shells ripped barely past the Ellsian warship's outer deflector shield barrier at nearly half the speed of light, crossing the distance to the _Repia_ in the blink of an eye. The main view screen was realigned aft to reveal total devastation ripping through the Urusian warship as her bow was literally caved in by _Roma_ 's salvo. The vessel seemed to stagger for a moment before her hull hit the exact point of no return...then the whole ship vanished in a flash of light and exploding gas as the antimatter containment fields in her warp drive core instantly collapsed, allowing the reaction that gave the Kashin-class vessel its power to go insane and tear the ship apart, leaving nothing but molecular particles behind from a line warship of the Urusian Union Navy.

The bridge crew of the _Rose Emperor_ could only wince in horrified sympathy at such a terrible fate befalling 1,400 natives of Uru and her colonies; death in airless space was NEVER a pretty thing. As some people gazed in horror at Ataru, he smirked as he placed a comforting hand on Elle's shoulder, which made her look up at him. "Relax, ladies. The current Academician — who's actually an _**American**_! — is quite a merciful lady deep down. Right now, that idiot and his crew are finding themselves the guests of the Imperial Noukiite Marines on Tengsei!" As the people on the bridge gaped in shock while several snickered as they wondered what the Urusians who had tried to attack either them or the Terrans would experience now once they were under the charge of a Noukiite Marine drill sergeant — one of the most feared sentient beings in the local cluster — Ataru then blinked before he gazed on the corpse of the woman he had killed. "Um, Lady Anna, I think your queen asked to get the _**garbage**_ beamed off this ship!" he then stated as he looked at the emerald-haired captain of the _Rose Emperor_.

Anna du Kohln awked before she barked out orders to the executive officer to get security up here and get that done. Watching her flag crew go to work, Elle chuckled before she snuggled close to the man who had saved her from a living Hell...

* * *

 _ **Aboard NSI**_ **Roma** ** _in the main cafeteria, that moment..._**

" _ **He...he MURDERED Lum-chan...!**_ "

Hearing Koi Shinjin's sobbing voice, many of the boys who had watched the destruction of the _Repia_ on the main view screen mounted on one of the bulkheads all gasped before they dropped to their knees and began to scream in agony. As the girls and those boys who suspected that something different was going on — among them being Mendō Shūtarō himself — shook their heads in disgust at such slavish behaviour from their peers, the main doors opened to reveal a VERY upset middle school senior from Namimori, who was now glaring at such unruly behaviour from supposedly "more mature" high school students.

" _ **URUSAI!**_ "

As everyone gasped on hearing that snarled bark, Hibari Kyōya raised his tonfā, a hungry look on his face as his royal blue Cloud Flames flared to life, giving him an inhuman aura of power that made many of the Tomobiki boys wet their pants at such a sight. Seated close to Shūtarō, Sawada Tsunayoshi could only sigh. "Please, Hibari-san! _**Indulge**_ yourself!" the youthful would-be Mafia famiglia boss then declared as he gazed directly at Shinjin, who awked in horror on realizing that this seemingly nice kid actually COMMANDED such a horrible being. "I'm sure the nice ladies here would appreciate it!"

Kyōya smiled at that statement. "For planned treason against the human race, for forcing your herbivore ways on the small animals who are forced to see you as their peers and for subjecting Earth to the deprivations of uncivilized alien herbivores..."

His eyes then glowed star-bright with blinding indigo.

" _ **I — will — BITE — YOU — ALL — TO — DEATH!**_ "

Seconds later, pained and howling screams echoed through the ship, echoed with the sounds of MANY broken bones, that echoed with the whoops and cheers of many of _Roma_ 's cooks and the girls from Tomobiki High...!

 _ **To Be Continued...**_

* * *

 **WRITER'S NOTES**

 _Urusei Yatsura_ and _The Senior Year_ minor character notes:

 **Miyake Saiko** , **Mend** **ō** **Tachiko** , **Aisuru Tokiko** , **Urayamu Takako** , **Shitto Nijiko** , **Daremo Mitsuko** , **Redet Danu** and **Moroboshi Hiromi** are the names I'm giving to the "film replica" characters who first appeared in the manga story "Love and Violence" (manga chapter #78) as they are literally reborn into Avalonian bodies; noted that Avalonians only come in female form. Note that in the original manga story, the Stormtroopers had fallen off to the wayside, replaced by **Shirai Kōsuke** (who looked like a freckled version of **Perm** [ **Shitto Kōsuke** ]). The family names for the Stormtroopers are taken from what I used in _The Senior Year_ and the name for Ataru's replica is taken from _Phoenix From The Ashes_.

 **Koi Shinjin** was a character from _The Senior Year_ story "Lum's Lesson".

Mendō Shūtarō's parents **Mendō Hajime** and his wife **Haruka** , his grandfather **Mendō Genjurō** and his sister **Mendō Ryōko** were all background characters throughout the anime and manga. The given names to all save Ryōko are my invention.

 **Sugihara Nara** , **Nishihara Ikue** and **Nishijima Hiroshige** were characters on the "relationship chart" that Miyake Shinobu drew up in the anime story "Goodbye Season" (anime episode #64). Nara's and Ikue's family names and Hiroshige's given name are my invention.

 **Sadoyama Keizō** first appeared in the second anime story "It's Raining Oil All Over Town" (second half of anime episode #1). His family name wasn't given until the first movie _Only You_ ; his given name is my invention.

 **Soban** first appeared in the first part of the manga story "Get Something On Your Chest" (manga chapters #184-185). I never created a real name for him.

 **Babara de Esterchild** , **Amora "Elle" de Rosenbach** and **Anna du Kohln** all appeared in the movie _Only You_. Babara's family name, Elle's birth name and Anna's whole name are my creation.

The **Hustari** first appeared in _The Senior Year_ story "Dakejinzō's Story". The terms I used for their various sexes were derived from the 1995 book _Shadow Man_ , by **Melissa Scott**. What is used for **Viper** ( **Gabriela Abate** ) implies zhe is a hermaphrodite; this is in respect to the fact that many _Reborn_ fanfic writers use plural terms to describe zher.

Prince **Sheko** of Kyotos and Grand Teacher **Dureko** first appeared in the "Great Father Ataru" arc of _The Senior Year_.

Translation and explanation list: **Bōsōzoku** — Literally "running out of control (of a vehicle) tribe", name given to motorcycle enthusiasts in Japan who break traffic laws, normally with customized motorcycles; **Aneki** — A female variation of **Aniki** (written **兄貴** ) which could be applied to one's sister; **Il Capo di Tutti i Capi** — The Boss of All Bosses; **Iinazuke** — One's arranged marriage partner; **PSIA** — Public Security Intelligence Agency (in Japanese, **Kōanchōsa-chō** ), Japan's national intelligence agency; **Ich, schwerer Kreuzer Prinz Eugen** — I, heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen; **Sprechen Deutsch** — Speak German; **Einsatzgruppe für die Liebe "Moroboshi Ataru"** — Moroboshi Ataru's Special Task Force for Love; **Nekul'túrnyje golovorézy** — Uncultured thugs; **Buongiorno** — Good day; **Burakumin** — Literally "village people", these were those who practised the "unclean" trades in Edo days and whose descendants are still scorned for their ancestors' work to this day; **Yūjo** — Prostitute; **Hashāashīn** — Hashish users; **Tesoro** — Treasure; **Primo Tenente di Vascello** — First (Ship of the Line) Vessel Lieutenant, equal to a Navy lieutenant elsewhere (short-formed **1º TV** ); **Grazie** — Thanks; **Vongola Decimo** — Tenth of the Vongola (Family); **I Prescelti Sette** — The Selected Seven, known also as the **Arcobaleno** (Rainbow); **Famiglia** — Family/Clan; **Cosa Nostra** — Literally "our thing", this is the popular nickname of the Sicilian mafia in real life and in _Katekyō Hitman Reborn_ ; **Tenchiaiki Jūkazoku** — Literally "ten harmonious houses of Heaven and Earth", the Moroboshi Clan's extended relatives and servants of the Imperial Throne for a millennia; **Ammiraglio** — Admiral; **Capitano** — Captain; **Secondo Capo Scelto** — Chosen Second Chief, the equivalent of a petty officer first class in the Royal Canadian Navy; **Comando Raggruppamento Subacquei e Incursori Teseo Tesei** — Teseo Tesei Diver and Raider Command Group, short-formed as **COMSUBIN** , the name of Italy's naval frogmen special forces corps; **Buona fortuna** — Good luck; **Benedetta Maria** — Blessed (Virgin) Mary; **Fratello Maggiore** — Elder Brother; **Piccolo** — Little one; **Primo Pensiero Padrona** — The Italian way of saying "Thoughtmistress-prime", the Sagussan term for a senior teacher; **Amore** — Beloved.

The **Kantō Magical Association** is the same agency which was introduced in _Mahō Sensei Negima_ and is led by the headmaster of the Mahora Academy, Professor **Konoe Konoemon**. As implied in that series, it is one of eight regional government agencies that regulate the magical population of the nation. The formal name of this organization in my stories is **Imperial Magical Commandery of Kantō** ( **Kantō Teimajutsu-gun** ), short-formed simply as **Tōmagun**.

Note that this story follows what was done with the German heavy cruiser **KMS** _ **Prinz Eugen**_ ( **Catarina von Savoyen** ) in _Belated Battleships_ ; there, she was summoned to Naval Station Everett (at the end of the chapter "Get In Nerds, We're Going to do Freedom!"), then she took up a commission in the United States Navy. In this story and in _The Seventh Shipgirl_ , Eugen's old hull number IX-300 was dropped and replaced with a proper heavy cruiser hull classification code and number, **CA-161**.

Russian versions of a person's name and patronymics used here:

 **Ekaterína Evgén'evna** — Catarina, daughter of Eugene  
 **Jóiko Khirósiovna** — Yoiko, daughter of Hiroshi

Note that the names I give the Arcobaleno, save for **Reborn** ( **Renato Sinclair** ), are my invention.

Shipgirls and their human names appearing or spoken of here, in order of introduction:

 _ **FRANCE  
**_ (no universal ship prefix, type prefix **GC** [ **Grand Cuirassé** ] ["Large Battleship"])  
 **GC Jean Bart** — Jeanne Dianne Baert

 _ **ITALY  
**_ (ship prefix **MM** [ **Marina Militaire** ] ["Military Navy"])  
 **MM Aquila** — Giuseppina Fioravanzo  
 **MM Sparviero** — Sebastiana Fioravanzo

 _ **JAPAN  
**_ (ship prefix **THG** [ **Tennō Heika Gunkan** ] ["Warship of His Majesty the Heavenly Sovereign"])  
 **THG Taihō** — Ozawa Taeko  
 **THG Hibiki** — Akamatsu Himeko  
 **THG Akatsuki** — Akamatsu Tsukiko  
 **THG Tenryū** — Shimosuwa Tamiyo  
 **THG Tatsuta** — Shimosuwa Tadako  
 **THG Ikazuchi** — Akamatsu Ikue  
 **THG Zuikaku** — Matsubara Suzue  
 **THG Kitakami** — Kumamoto Kiko  
 **THG Ōi** — Kumamoto Otsune  
 **THG Inazuma** — Akamatsu Inoue

 _ **RUSSIA  
**_ (no universal ship prefix, type prefix **LK** [ **Linéjnyj Korábl'** ] ["Ship of the Line"])  
 **LK Gángut** — Galína Vladímirovna Jurkévich

 _ **UNITED STATES  
**_ (ship prefix **USS** [ **United States Ship** ])  
 **USS Prinz Eugen** — Olympia Catarina "Rinnie" von Savoyen  
 **USS Missouri** — Marguerite Suzanne McNair  
 **USS San Francisco** — Michiko Francine Norton  
 **USS Saratoga** — Olive Dionysia "Dionne" Doolittle


	3. The End of Innocence for Tomobiki

**_DISCLAIMER:_ _Concurrent with fair dealing clauses of the_ Copyright Act _(R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42) of Canada and fair use clauses in copyright legislation in other nations, this is a work that was created solely for entertainment purposes. Furthermore, it is posted freely on the Internet without expectation or requirement of remuneration._**

* * *

 _ **Aboard United States Starship**_ **Missouri** _ **, in orbit over Jupiter, Tuesday 25 April, an hour before supper UTC...**_

" _ **I PROTEST THIS!**_ "

"Protest it all you wish, Mister Ambassador! But YOUR ship violated a dozen intergalactic treaties when it came charging into this solar system with shields up and weapons armed, acting in a threatening manner towards a visiting head-of-state AND one of our own starships on Monday. Never mind your ship's captain blatantly IGNORING the automated warnings the Lady Academician has transmitted out to all vessels who are forbidden to pass the Ceres orbit line..."

" _ **YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO BLOCK OUR TRANSIT THROUGH YOUR SYSTEM! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO MAKE DEALS WITH THEY WHO MUST NEVER BE NAMED! YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO THOSE STARSHIPS...!**_ "

" _ **BE SILENT!**_ "

The ambassador of the Urusian Union to the Kingdom of Neptune, Aruka Haron, gargled as the eyes of the woman known across the galaxy as the "Dragonspeaker" focused on him with a glare that would make even the most battle-crazed Yehisrite wilt in terror. At the head of the table in the starship's wardroom close to the command bridge, the Imperial Chancellor of the Noukiite Outmarches — who had been asked by a council of Terran heads-of-state to chair this flag-of-truce meeting — glared at the brother to an infamous conservative infonet broadcaster that had no fans beyond the radical right on Uru and her colonies. Who, Moroboshi Ataru also knew, had been changed in a way that Haron wouldn't come close to understanding before others who were also changed that way would see him deposed of his position and rendered a pauper.

"The Union Ambassador forgets himself," Seu-Ch'ek Yech'a-Mung Hechnich'-Nakkyek of Ait'uch Nehech coldly stated. "You are here as a COURTESY given that it was one of your Union's ships that violated many treaties and acted in a very aggressive way towards Her Majesty the Queen and our honoured host's allies of the Republic of Italy when he charged his vessel at the _Rose Emperor_ and the _Roma_." Here, she smiled politely to Josiah Bartlet, who sat at the other end of the table in his position as President of the United States. Queen Elle herself was to the President's right as his honoured guest; after a quick explanation as to what had been discovered about her, Bartlet had been happy to invite the Rose Queen on an official state visit to Earth to learn more about the Abyssal War and why the Terrans had to go to such extreme lengths to keep information about that secret from the Galactic Federation. "We warned everyone in Rajdhani that we were creating an Imperial Commandery to cover the inner parts of this solar system once the whole temporal paradox issue concerning Venerable Lord Moroboshi was resolved last week. We also warned everyone the Lady Academician had been moving to create a defensive field around the inner part of the system to keep unruly aliens away from Earth — as agreed to by His Excellency the President and his counterparts elsewhere — which went active five days ago. The warnings were out there. Why didn't Captain Hoth heed those warnings? Were it not for the Lady Academician's mercy, he and his entire crew would be _**dead**_ now!"

Haron shuddered. "You have no right, Madame Chancellor..."

The diminutive Noukiite woman with the pale lavender hair and the royal blue eyes smirked as she glared him down. "Who's going to stop us, Mister Ambassador?" she then coldly asked. "Or Lady Academician and her friends?"

That made the middle aged Seishin man turn an unhealthy shade of grey as the preserved memories of the Mother of All Fight Scenes that had been force-fed into his mind when he was a child replayed once more. The Academician of that particular generation hadn't been involved in the near-destruction of Uru in the wake of the attempted invasion of That World over two centuries before, but those who HAD been involved in the Mother of All Fight Scenes always warned those who listened that it was NEVER smart to piss off the Wise Genius of the Circle of Thought, that planet's top-flight polymath hyper-genius since the dark days of the Dawn of Power two millennia before. "This will not stand...!" he then croaked out.

"Again, who's going to stop us? Or the Yizibajohei?"

Haron yelped, as did King Fuyu and Queen Elle. "Madame Chancellor, PLEASE...!" Oyuki's elderly father feebly protested.

"Why do you people do that to yourselves?"

That was Bartlet, who had a concerned look on his face. "I can understand fear of those people for something they directly did to you!" the former governor of New Hampshire stated in his "caring grandfather's" voice that had won him fans among even moderate Republicans when they were shown how wise and intelligent the man was. "But being forced to experience the memories of your ancestors who had faced those people's predecessors in these 'fight scenes', much less that retaliation for what happened to Miss Redet Danu when she simply got homesick and wanted to see her parents...before they BETRAYED her like they did?" As Haron hissed " _ **Lies!**_ " at that observation, the American head-of-state shook his head. As the meeting was being held on _Missouri_ , he had physically come from Washington to attend; the other heads-of-state or heads-of-government who had interest in this were monitoring things via hyperspace communications from their capital cities.

"No!" he firmly declared. "We will no longer deal with people who purposefully CRIPPLE themselves in that manner. Exceptions will be made for the Kingdom of Neptune given we share the same solar system and given their current unfortunate circumstance of being forced to reside on a terraformed MOON in lieu of their proper homeworld...but until such time as you people can say the names of Miss Moroboshi's home planet and adopted home race properly, we will not trust you more than we could throw you to our own moon!" As Haron gaped at him, Bartlet added, "As of now, we consider the Tag Race Treaty signed between the Union government and the United Nations _**revoked**_. The rights of Miss Redet Lum, her cousin Mister Redet Ten and Miss Aruka Ran to reside in Japan are also revoked. Miss Redet and her cousin will be permitted to visit Earth to retrieve their personal belongings under escort by a party agreeable to us to ensure they don't do as they did before this whole madness began last week. We REFUSE to believe in Miss Redet's FALSE claim of marriage when it comes to Mister Moroboshi here. Since his parents had NO RIGHT to negotiate his hand in marriage to Miss Redet's, whatever agreement was made on the _Kashin_ a week ago has no legal standing on Earth...as it should not on Uru since the ONLY time Mister Moroboshi tagged Miss Redet's horns was in a Tag Race, where marriage tags are expressly FORBIDDEN!" As Haron croaked out again that such were lies, Bartlet finished, "Miss Aruka kept her belongings in her home, thus she has no reason to return to Earth. Once Miss Redet retrieves hers and her cousin's belongs from the Moroboshi home, they are to leave Earth forever."

"Since you'll scream to the top of your lungs that he — much less Tennō himself — has no right to revoke that treaty, you can consider Paragraph Ten of the Tag Race Treaty in full effect for the next two hundred years Earth-time for ALL residents of Uru and her colonies, not to mention Konton and all Urusian expats alive today," Ataru added, his eyes narrow. As Haron hissed, he smirked. "My sister and her friends from Yiziba..." — here, he ignored the horrified gasps from the aliens save the Noukiites now in the wardroom — "...will enforce it. Warn all the freight and passenger transport companies to avoid doing close approaches to our sun; you know what happens when those ships hit the Ceres orbit line. I doubt they'll appreciate the uniCredits they'll lose for cargoes destroyed; we're not PAYING for their IDIOCY!" As Haron shuddered at that snarled demand from this annoying lesser who had somehow won the heart of Uru's proper empress, the Terran's left eye started to glow, which made the ambassador's bowels churn as he recalled what he had been told about Morningstar Plain. " **Doesn't feel so good being on the RECEIVING end of it, does it?** " he asked with a slight ring to his voice, which made Haron and Fuyu both pale as their minds registered the cant of that voice. " **You don't have the fat fool around to try to BULLY me this time.** "

" **Not that Invader would be able to bully you anymore, Ataru** ," Seu-P'ye Yesu-Re Hechnich'-K'ekhech of Ait'uch Nehech said, her voice echoing with the cosmic power she possessed thanks to her blood-adoption by the great dragon Nengmek'i.

" **That's true...** "

"Stupid homr'bu umale would deserve a very nasty beat down like that," Moroboshi Tariko said from beside her brother's fiancée, her own eyes focused on the Urusian ambassador, which made him instantly wilt. "You two done with this thing?"

"Mister President?" the Imperial Chancellor asked.

"Agreed, Madame Chancellor," the American President replied.

Tariko snapped her fingers, using her powers to warp Haron off _Missouri_ and back to Uru. The shipgirl whose ship-self formed the template for the starship they stood on walked over to closely inspect the chair the Urusian had been sitting on. "Damn! He didn't shit himself!" the battleship also known as Marguerite McNair mused aloud before she shook her head. "You're slipping a little bit, Tariko. I always heard you guys always make them shit themselves with just BEING there!"

"Must be the Terran influence in me, Mo," Tariko confessed as the others at the table save Fuyu and Elle laughed. "Damn! I have to get back home and get some decent fight scenes under my belt! I must be getting rusty!"

"You're still at the top of your game, Tariko," Ataru declared.

Tariko preened at that compliment while Roma patted her shoulder. "So when do we get rid of this last stinky alien?" a childish voice then asked from near the Dragonspeaker, which made people gaze upon Hoppō, who had been standing close to where her mother was seated beside the Chancellor. She was now glaring at King Fuyu, a mirthless smile on her face. The sandpanther kitten who had adopted Hoppō as her "pet" was perched on the installation princess' forehead and hissing at the elderly Neptunian. "Hoppō didn't like hearing what stinky alien's daughter nearly did to Ataru-niichan! Hoppō hopes that stupid yeti who protects stinky alien's daughter comes by once! Hoppō wants to make a nice FUR RUG to give to Mama!"

As Fuyu gargled at that threat towards his daughter's precious protector B-Boy, Ataru smirked. "Remember, Ojii-san, Hoppō-chan can do just that!" He then pointed to Dormiglione. "Her parents would turn that big thing into an instant _**chew toy**_ once they see how WHITE he is! I'm sure Reiko-san wouldn't mind a rug that was worked in by a pride of sandpanthers."

Fuyu shuddered at that threat, realizing Ataru no longer considered people such as his daughter threats to his own person. Knowing what he did about that epic battle on Morningstar Plain a year ago and having seen Ataru's left eye glow when he dressed down Haron, Fuyu didn't dare risk using his ice-manipulation powers to try to upbraid the child. Not only had Moroboshi Ataru been declared a _**Servant of Angels**_ by the Cabal of Elders in the old Noukiite imperial capital of Ryekkyuk — which instantly earned him the full protections of the Imperial Dominion of Noukiios — he also had gladly allowed his own DNA to be cloned in an Avalonian body to give the Trickster of the Great Show of Life the chance to live again as his adopted sister Tariko! And if the crest he wore on his chest when he became the "Cyborg" as he did at Morningstar Plain spoke the truth of an affiliation to a planet of mystery whose existence had been speculated on in galactic legend since before the time the Seifukusu broke into space, then there was yet ANOTHER reason to not offend this clearly angry young man...!

Ataru then coughed before he pointed behind him to the panel windows showing the arc of the system's largest planet rotating serenely under _Missouri_ 's keel. As Fuyu looked, the Terran tag champion then said, "Now, Henry."

" _Lowering the cloak, Ataru_ ," a cultured man's voice then echoed through the wardroom...

...just as space melted into the tan wedge-shaped colossus of the most famous starship in the local cluster.

The very ship Fuyu's whole RACE owed their EXISTENCES to!

"My friends on Sagussa would look very DIMLY on your _**abusing**_ their gift to your father's people a millennia ago, Ojii-san," the _**Chosen One of the Eternal Voyager**_ then said with a smile that lacked any humour whatsoever.

Fuyu shuddered as both President Bartlet and Chancellor Nakkyek gave him sympathetic looks...

* * *

 _ **Tomobiki, Tomobiki Senior High School, seven hours later (local time: Wednesday 26 April, an hour after breakfast)...**_

Mendō Tachiko politely cleared her throat, then she bowed deeply to the assembled class; she stood at the lectern. "I humbly accept your votes and vow not to fail you," the new iinchō of Class 2-4 declared in a solemn voice.

Whoops and cat-calls escaped the others as they applauded. To the surprise of many — even their homeroom teacher Onsen Mark — almost the whole class voted for the newest heiress to Japan's richest family when nominations were made to replace Moroboshi Ataru as iinchō due to his departure for Sasebo...which was now delayed thanks to Monday's events. Even now, two days later, members of the Ground Self-Defence Force's military police corps from the Nerima garrison were cordoning off the greenhouses as special investigators brought in from the Tōkyō Metropolitan Police Department and from agencies around the world analyzed the crime scene to determine exactly who had killed off the members of the Torture Studies Group. And while food was being shipped in by personnel from the Nerima Barracks, the people of Tomobiki High were now realizing that they were once more under nationwide rationing, a system that seemed to go by the wayside when the aliens were here.

"A message from my predecessor before we begin a _**proper**_ homeroom class," Tachiko then said as she pulled out a small letter from her skirt, eliciting a chorus of amused laughter from her peers. "He again deeply apologizes for failing both this class and Class 1-4 the previous school year due to issues that were effectively out of his control. Ataru-san does pass on his thanks to Onii-sama for all the work he did as fukuiinchō." As people in the room gasped at that statement and Shūtarō himself looked lost at that compliment his rival effectively gave him, Tachiko added, "Ataru-san also wrote up a list when were aboard the _Roma_ about things he recommends should be done to better improve life at the school." She then winked at the others. "Be assured, none of what you might have expected from Ataru-san is in this list, minna-san."

More laughter filled the room. "Go on! Read it, Tachiko-san!" Wada Keisuke, another former Class 1-4 veteran from the previous school year, called out. "Even if the ideas might still be stupid, he deserves to be heard out."

"Yeah, especially with how Unbaba-sempai gushes over Negako-san all the time," his would-be girlfriend Taki Michiko noted.

People nodded. Unbaba Tetsu and the Nyōke twins had made themselves available to help watch over Tomobiki High in the wake of the murder of Sadoyama Keizō and his peers; they were often seen by the main gate watching over those who were NOT in uniform as they moved past the school grounds. Also guarding the grounds were the Akatsuki-class shipgirls of Destroyer Division Six. Already, many of Class 2-4 had caught Fujinami Ryūnosuke going out to deliver tea and snacks to Akatsuki, Hibiki, Ikazuchi and Inazuma when she got the chance. Of course, during those times Ryūnosuke's father tried to bellow that his "manly son" was hitting up on such cute girls, Long Beach would pop out of nowhere, wing the lunatic with a surfboard and send him flying into the Pacific, calling out at the same time, " _ **SURF'S UP, OLD DUDE!**_ " Seeing that made many of the girls at school laugh their guts out even if the Principal — who was clearly losing control over his students...if not his very sanity — berated the tomboy for forgetting "his" proper filial duties to "his" long-suffering father. That, of course, saw the old fool sent flying at the business end of her fist, echoed by her usual " _ **I'M A CHICK, DAMN IT!**_ " declaration.

Of course, given the respect Tetsu had for Moroboshi Negako, it was understandable that many at Tomobiki High had come to accept Ataru's new guardian/adopted sister as the legendary Imperial Special Agent #49 finally given her own life. Given that she was expected to remain in Tomobiki for a bit, it made many of the students at the school feel considerable relief at the idea that their government HAD NOT totally abandoned them to the madness that rocked Tomobiki for the previous year. Given that the shipgirls now in Tomobiki accepted Negako without reservation, not even those naysayers who feared a Moroboshi Ataru possessing fighting skills that would outdo Saotome Ranma ten ways from Sunday could really object.

Sensing her peers considering that, Tachiko began, "First recommendation: ' _That the whole of the grounds of Tomobiki High School be placed under special blood ki wards that would be locked onto all the staff and students to prevent outsiders from charging onto the grounds and disrupting classes._ ' Doing this will also ensure those who were affected by curses such as Chigaiko-san would have said curses detected right away and removed. Negako-san has volunteered to have the school protected since Sakura-san seems incapable and potentially unwilling to do such as she should have done all along."

People blinked. "That's not a bad idea!" Marubeya Momoe noted after raising her hand and being acknowledged by Tachiko. "After all, Ranma-kun's 'grandmaster' often loves to visit to get our panties. Would these wards keep him out, Tachiko-san?"

"Guaranteed, Momoe-san," the class iinchō declared with a purr in her voice.

"I'm for it!" Gekasawa Kumiko declared. "Show of hands?!"

All the girls and some of the boys raised their hands. Tachiko was quick to note that the other boys were miffed at the fact that Ataru had deliberately cast doubt on the abilities of Sakurambō Sakura in his proposal. _Little do they know_ , she mused to herself before saying, "Approved by majority vote. I'll present it to the Student Council today. Second recommendation: ' _All school-sponsored fan clubs such as the one centred on Mend_ _ō Shūtarō and Redet Lum should be immediately disbanded, not to reform. This is to make sure that should another attack like_ _what happened on Monday happens again, innocent people are not killed. People who want to be otaku to people like that shouldn't do it on school property_ '."

"Hey, that's a cool idea," Sugihara Nara stated after being allowed to speak. "Even if many of us still care for Mendō-san, that might make him a target for these Ḥashāshīn creeps that Ataru-kun told us about on Monday."

"That will NOT happen...!"

 _KK-KRUNCH!_

" _ **Satoshi-san!**_ " Tachiko snapped at Aisuru Satoshi just as his own sister Tokiko smacked him down with a mallet. The Stormtroopers had been cleared to return to school the previous evening, but found themselves being glared at by dozens of people — including some of their own "loyal auxiliaries"! — when they had come in for classes this morning. "Nara-san has the floor! Put up your hand if you want to speak!" She then sighed. "Thank you for disciplining him, Tokiko-san."

"My pleasure, Iinchō," Tokiko said as she stowed her mallet.

As a lot of the girls fought down snickers at the sight of the normally-bombastic Megane being humbled like that in public, Nara took a deep breath. "Given that these Ḥashāshīn have ALREADY drawn first blood against us, I think even Lum's fans here will see that trying to pine for her is an instant DEATH SENTENCE!" she said with a snarl in her voice, making a lot of the boys croak in fright. "After all, Ataru-kun's going to Sasebo very soon. Would he, much less any of the shipgirls in town, be able to react in time in case we get a suicide bomber come charging into the school with an explosive vest?!"

Nishihara Ikue raised her hand. "Sensei, given what happened, I'd say let's get Negako-san here NOW to ward the school up!"

Onsen hummed. "A good point, Nishihara-kun. I'll ask Akatsuki-chan to get Negako-sama over here right away. Any other ideas that Moroboshi-kun came up with that might do a lot of good for us, Tachiko-kun?"

"Hai, there are a couple. Disbanding the Torture Studies Group..."

"Already done."

"Locking up the school clock tower belfry to all student access..."

"That should be done."

"HEY!" Megane screamed out.

 _KK-KLONK!_

" _ **SHUT IT, BAKA ONII-SAN!**_ "

"Arigatō, Tokiko-san," Tachiko stated after Tokiko smashed down her brother again with a bigger mallet to quiet him. "Ataru-san's final recommendation, Sensei, is organizing a 'Shipgirl Appreciation Class' set of lectures that would allow all kanmusu fans in the school to learn the stories of any particular shipgirl. Since we have a selection already in town — including Roma-san — we have a convenient time to do this. This would also help serve as a visual deterrent to terrorists."

Onsen nodded. "Let's get things going."

Almost everyone in the class whooped in delight. There were notable exceptions...

* * *

 _ **Tomobiki Town Park near the school, two hours before lunch...**_

"Don't you miss Lum-nēchan, Ataru-niichan?"

Ataru blinked as he registered that question from one of the first-grade children from Onigakkō Elementary School who had come to the park when they learned that some of the shipgirls were there, then noted he was seated at one bench with Roma and Yonaga. "Hai, I do miss her at times," he admitted as he gave Modoki Mako an apologetic look. "And I'm sorry I ended up chasing Ten away from Earth when you wanted to give him a Valentine's Day present back in February, Mako-chan. But given that the shipgirls had given me a whole tonne of Valentine's Day gifts..." A helpless shrug rolled his shoulders. "Well, I didn't want to be hurt if Lum had her normal temper-tantrums, much less tried to learn things she wasn't supposed to know. Could you imagine what one of Hoppō-chan's friends could have done to her OR Ten if they got their hands on them?" He indicated Hoppō nearby, who was being shown some of their artwork about shipgirls by Mako's classmates.

Mako blinked, then she slowly nodded, though she still looked upset. "Still...!"

"Why did you like him, Mako?" Roma asked.

The dark-haired girl with cute pigtail braids thought about it before she shrugged. "Well, he was always so carefree and nice..." she said, surprising the older people with the maturity in her voice. "He always liked to fly around and explore. Yeah, I know about what he did to those germs at your school and what he did to that sparrow, Onii-chan, but he really didn't mean harm!" She sniffed back tears as two of her friends squeezed her shoulders. "Why'd people make him go away...?"

She turned and walked off to where her mother Ginko — who volunteered to watch over study halls and free periods for the staff at Onigakkō — was seated, reaching up to wipe her eyes clear. Seeing that, Ataru shuddered before a hand squeezed his shoulder. "She has to learn the harshness of life sooner or later, Ataru-san," Yonaga quietly stated. "She doesn't understand how unprepared her would-be husband was when it came to living alone at such a young age. After all, did your fool yūjo of a mother ever seek to discipline him for those things he instigated out of ignorance?" Her eyebrow arched knowingly.

He sighed. "No, Baka Kā-san did nothing as always, save blame things on me whenever something Ten did got too 'loud'." As Tenryū snorted in disgust — she was seated at the neighbouring bench nibbling on some snacks — he shrugged. "It's the romantic in me, Yoiko-san. Morningstar Plain, the Liberation and everything else I've been through hasn't fully chased it out of me." He chuckled as Roma reached over to playfully squeeze his cheek. "Definitely not chased out of me...!"

The large carrier laughed...

"Hey! Ataru-kun! Your shipgirls are illegally parked!"

Ataru gaped, then looked to the west...

...before he laughed as two very pretty twenty-something police officers stepped out of their mini patrol car. "Oi, Natsumi-san! Miyuki-san!" he called out before he gaped on seeing the large bag of piping hot food in Tsujimoto Natsumi's arms. "Oh-ho! Don't tell me the Kogane Restaurant decided to send some of that sweet taiyaki our way!" he then teased.

Natsumi laughed as her partner Kobayakawa Miyuki walked over to join them, a large back of taiyaki in her own arms. "Well, since you got quite the little fleet here right now — not to mention the reinforcements coming in from Yokosuka — it's best to top them off with the good stuff," the native of Asakusa in Taitō Ward said before she looked around. "Oi! All shipgirls close by!" she called out. "Some wonderful gifts of taiyaki from the Kogane Restaurant for you all!"

"Did you say 'Kogane taiyaki', Natsumi-san?!"

That was a laughing Musashi, who was now stepping into the park alongside her elder sister and future sister-in-law. As Hoppō squealed on seeing the two great ships that had rescued her from those who wanted to kill her three years before, the children jogged over to crowd around Yamato, Enterprise and Musashi. Much to Ataru's personal relief, the ash-haired super-battleship was not wearing her usual threadbare clothes with the long sarashi wrapped around her nearly-naked breasts; she now had on a double-breasted two-tone grey jacket over her top. Seeing that, Yonaga nodded in approval. "You knew the little ones were here, didn't you, Mutsuko-san?" the carrier noted as Natsumi came over to give Tenryū some taiyaki.

Musashi chuckled before nodding her thanks as Miyuki handed her one of the fish-shaped pastries. "I wouldn't think of scandalizing the little ones, Onē-sama. Such is dishonourable in the extreme," she immediately asserted.

The carrier's eyebrow arched. "And what of Sumie-san?"

"She knows how to dress in public, Onē-sama. Stop that!" Yamato scolded before smiling as Miyuki handed her one of the pastries. "Arigatō, Miyuki-san. How are things in Sumida these days? I know all the damage has long been repaired..."

"Daijōbu, Yasuko! Daijōbu!" Natsumi said as she waved the battleship down while she allowed Roma and Ataru to take some taiyaki from her bag. She then held it out for Yonaga...before she gaped in disbelief as the carrier made a negative wave of her hand. " _ **HUH?!**_ " she gasped, making everyone stare her way. "Oi, Itō-taisa!" she then scolded. "You look as thin as a rail! I know what not eating does to a carrier like you! You got to have something to eat, for heaven's sake...!"

"Natsumi-san!"

She yelped, then gaped at Yamato. "Yasuko-chan...?"

The battleship sighed as she immediately moved to stand close to her sister. "Believe me, Onē-sama appreciates this more than you can ever understand, Natsumi-san. But given what her crew went through in all those DECADES..." — everyone was quick to sense the very strong emphasis on that word — "...in Sano-wan, she has a very delicate stomach. She needs to drink a special herbal tea before she could hope to enjoy any normal food." As all the children gave the carrier sympathetic looks while some of the girls started to cry, Yamato gazed on them. "It's alright, minna-san. The instant taiyaki from Kogane is prepared and offered to people like myself as a gift, Kongō-san and her sisters will be on their way here at flank speed..."

"Harumi made some special tea for Yoiko-san."

The children gasped on seeing Haruna now offering a cup of tea to Yonaga. "You can set an atomic clock to you girls," Enterprise chuckled before Kirishima came over with a cup of sencha. "Arigatō, Isabel. Was it the Tin Can Mafia this time?"

"As your beloved just stated, Onē-sama has a very sharp ear for this type of taiyaki, Yvonne-san," the third of the Kongō-class stated with an amused smile before she nodded her thanks as Miyuki gave her some food.

"My thanks, Harumi-san," Yonaga stated before sipping her tea, then she nodded as Natsumi held out the bag of taiyaki.

People fell silent as the carrier took a small nibble of the breaded pastry filled with sweet azuki bean paste. As the taste hit her tongue, Yonaga made a sour face for a moment, but was able to swallow it. "Too sweet...!" she hissed.

"Holy...!" Natsumi said as she tried not to visibly wince even if she had to admire Yonaga's willingness to try something she clearly wasn't prepared to consume. "Was it really that bad for your crew?" she then tenderly asked.

"It was not a total disaster, Tsujimoto-junsabuchō," the carrier answered. "The area of Sano-wan was within range of the most fertile fishing grounds on the whole of the planet. You've all heard how much the little one there allowed the fishing fleets of Unalaska to continue their work in the Bering Sea providing for their families, have you not?" As people gazed on a now-blushing Hoppō, Yonaga sighed. "My crew never starved, even if they learned how to be very lean and always exercised to ensure they never developed any debilitating illnesses because of the massive levels of proteins they were taking in all the time. Not only that, once my crew mastered Luorávetlanskij jazýk — the tongue of the Chúkchi people — they were able to barter food with the local population." Here, she chuckled before she looked over as Gángut came to join them. "Right under the noses of the NKVD and the KGB." As the others laughed, she sipped her tea before taking another nibble.

"Eat slow, Onē-chan!" one boy called out.

The other children began to chant the same thing. Watching the "angry one" do her best in front of such a large crowd, Gángut chuckled before she nodded thanks as Kongō gave her a cup of caravan tea. "Given how selfish and foolish those idiots in State Security often were, Jóiko, I can't blame your crew for wanting to stay masked from us even while they were trapped."

"They had orders that couldn't be disobeyed, Galína-san. Only overridden by one person," Yonaga answered in a solemn voice.

"You mean Tennō?"

That was Mako. "Hai, Mako-chan."

"Such devotion to duty is so inspiring," Miyuki said as the children gazed in awe at the seventh carrier.

"Yeah, even in America," Enterprise noted. "Soon as news of Yoiko's identity got out, every shipgirl in the Navy wanted to get the chance to come over here and shake her hand for holding the watch up there alone since Blood Week."

"And one of them is here."

Everyone perked, then they turned...

"Kathy-chan!" Natsumi called out as the kids squealed at the sight of the second of the Iowa-class and America's first "public" shipgirl to return to duty walking into the park, accompanied by a distinguished middle-aged man in normal clothing. "Oh! You even brought your hubby over with you?!" she then teased as the children moved to crowd around New Jersey and her fiancé Arthur Crowning, they chanting questions to the star couple among American kanmusu. "So when's the happy day?!"

"Natsumi!" Miyuki scolded.

Jersey laughed as she waved Natsumi's partner down. "Oh, relax, Miyuki! Had to do a special job for Admiral Williams that got me to come over here." The older people there were visibly relieved that the normally profane battleship was keeping her language tempered in the presence of so many children. "Since Arthur was going a little stir-crazy over in Kitsap, he came with me on this trip. He's wanted to see Japan since forever, so he took the chance to come on over on this mission."

"You CARRIED him across the PACIFIC?!" Kirishima demanded.

The American laughed. "No! Relax, Isabel! I had help!" She then pointed to the south and up high in the sky.

Everyone blinked, then they looked over...

"Your starship-self, you mean?" Roma asked as the children squealed on seeing United States Starship _New Jersey_ now floating over the southern end of Tōkyō Bay; even at a distance of forty kilometres, the 2700 metre-long space battleship was quite easy to recognize. "With all the weather decks laden down with containers to be shipped here. I heard both Ammiraglio Williams and Ammiraglio Bowman felt it necessary to keep ships in harbour due to equipment breakdown..."

"Yeah, it's bad in places, Bobbie."

Silence then fell as Jersey's blue eyes locked on Yonaga's grey ones. As the children all blinked in confusion and the adults immediately tensed on this first meeting between the famous American Black Dragon and the Seventh Carrier, Yonaga then smiled as she set aside her tea and taiyaki, standing up. As Jersey straightened herself, the carrier came over to stand before her. Both then exchanges salutes. "A pleasure to meet you, Captain Itō," the battleship then declared.

"An honour, Commander Hyde. To you as well, Professor Crowning," Yonaga replied in accentless English with a mixture of Ontarian and southern Californian tones. "You have my deepest thanks for what you've done for my younger sister over the last three years, Commander. Your encouragement and your willingness to shield her as your sisters and yourself did to those such as Commander Swanson in the late war did wonders for my sister's drive to serve the Heavenly Sovereign."

The battleship felt her cheeks redden. "The captain is far too kind." She then gazed briefly at Musashi before she looked back. "May I assume that the captain is also aware of my sharing her other sister's futon once?"

"Indeed I am aware of that incident, Commander," the carrier noted as her second-oldest battleship sister blushed a deep brown at that comment. "May I simply ask the commander to refrain from openly expressing her national pride? Now is not the time to vent out such foolishness in the face of the real enemy. I will ensure my sister learns proper modes of behaviour in the presence of honoured allies. At the end of my wakizashi if necessary, of course," she coldly added.

As Musashi awked on hearing that, Jersey chuckled. "The captain is too kind."

Yonaga laughed...then she instantly sobered. "Regretfully, I also am the bearer of very terrible news for you, Jersey-dono," she then formally declared, which made all the locals instantly stiffen at that switch of tone in her voice, not to mention her use of the local term for "lady" to the American battleship with her ship name. "A former member of your ship's company — who briefly served aboard you shortly after your being recommissioned the fourth time in 1982 — was engaged in searching for his missing father near the end of 2012 in the area I was operating in at the time. He was attacked by an enemy submarine while sailing without any sort of military escort on his personal yacht near Barrow in Alaska. Fortunately, my combat air patrol spotted him and were able to destroy the submarine...though he was able to shoot her eyes out with his pistol." As Jersey gaped on hearing that, the carrier added, "Commander Brent Ross — he was an ensign attached to the Office of Naval Intelligence when he briefly served with your crew — volunteered to be my admiral's hatamoto, his bannerman and advisor when it came to modern affairs, after he was brought aboard." She closed her eyes, though the battleship was quick to see those grey orbs mist over. "When it came time last November for my crew to embrace Eternity so I could serve my Heavenly Sovereign better as a shipgirl, Commander Ross..." She paused before bowing her head, two tiny trickles of tears flowing down her pale cheeks. "Was happy to join the people that had become his adopted family in what lies beyond this life."

Jersey jolted as if Yonaga had gladly stabbed her in the heart with her short sword...before a cold feeling sank into the battleship's heart as many memories of what the fighting men of Imperial Japan had been like in the Pacific theatre of World War Two replayed in her mind. The far different worldviews, where death in battle serving one's country was seen as the most blessed fate of all if victory could not be achieved, where surrender was seen as ghastly and dishonourable to the extreme, where people believed — even now — that once one died, one was forever cleansed of sin...! Much that her own morality, based on Judaeo-Christian scripture, shrieked at the sacrifice of over 2,600 brave men at the end of wakizashi to transform the last warship of the Imperial Navy into the tall warrior now standing before her, she knew that in the eyes of the carrier known as Itō Yoiko that what that retired intelligence officer did the previous fall was the single most bravest thing of all.

"You made it painless, didn't you?" Jersey asked.

"I did," Yonaga affirmed before she reached into her top to pull out a letter. "The commander's letter to you personally; it also contains the death poem he wrote before I served as his second. Be assured, Commander, I will personally go to the White House and apologize to His Excellency the President for my ultimate failure at bringing Commander Ross home alive."

Jersey gazed at her, then she dumbly nodded as she took the letter in hand. As some of the children — who didn't understand a word of what the two had said to each other, but did sense the solemn mood of their speech — bowed their heads in sympathy at the sad thing that had been said by the two shipgirls, the others all closed their eyes as they whispered prayers to the many departed souls whose final sacrifice had helped make the fifth of the Yamato-class what she was today...

* * *

 _ **Onomichi (fifty kilometres east of Hiroshima), that moment...**_

"Oh, look! It's Chennalton-sama!"

"Wa! She's so beautiful in her mess dress uniform!"

"She's definitely going to visit Yurie-sama!"

"Look at all those medals she has!"

"Eh? Who's that beside her?"

"Another captain in the Royal Canadian Navy...?"

Silence.

"She's almost as tall as Chennalton-sama..."

More silence.

"Feel that aura of hers...!"

Still more silence.

"Masaka! She's...?!"

Dramatic pause...

"Another of the _**Ry**_ _ **ūseizen**_...?!"

Hearing that hissed comment from one tsukumogami nearby, the woman with the aura of a proper Edwardian-era matron despite her considerable muscled body under the black jacket, gold-trimmed black pants and white ruffled shirt with bow tie of Number 2 mess standard dress for Canada's naval service chuckled as she gazed on the taller yet slightly thinner woman at her side. Both had the four stripes of navy captains on their cuffs with miniaturized medals dangling off the left collar flap of their jackets. Given their long service as warships of the Royal Canadian Navy Magical Service, both the second of the Lady Elgin-class battleships and the second of the Argo-class battleships bore decorations that spanned _**decades**_ in time as marked by their Canadian Forces Decorations. On Chennalton's CD, atop a normal one maple leaf clasp for ten additional years good service atop the original twelve year period, there was the new five-leaf special clasp for a total of SIXTY additional years of service to the Crown; per Magical Royal Proclamation released after the first Canadian shipgirls were summoned to duty at Cornwallis in the wake of Blood Week in 2011, service as warships was seen qualifying for the CD to a shipgirl. In addition to her CD with five-leaf clasp and extra single-leaf clasp, Lady Jane had the right to wear the medal's effective predecessor decoration, the Volunteer Long Service Medal for India and the Colonies to mark her first twenty years of service from her commissioning in 1916. She also proudly bore Soviet Russia's first true order for bravery, the Órden Krásnovo Známeni; the whole of her commissioning crew had been awarded that badge for their sterling work in helping keep the magical peace during the October Revolution and the following civil war. Of course, there were the considerable fountain of magical-only awards, chief among them the Dominion's highest ranking medal, Companion of the Order of Merlin of Canada.

"You didn't tell me that all of the spirits in this town were such a talkative bunch, Patty," Jane scolded as she gazed in amusement at the younger battleship, her blue eyes twinkling with amusement as several yōkai of different types — not to mention a small flock of normal birds — fluttered close to her shoulders, their eyes wide as they detected the ghostly aura of the incredible colossus she had been as the younger of two of the world's truly largest battleship class.

"Oh, you get used to them sooner or later, Jane," Chennalton said as she held up a hand to allow a robin to flutter down on her finger. As several children passing them by gasped at such a sight, she smirked. "It was no wonder that Miss Yurie was able to bring Yasuko here, especially with one of the engineers responsible for her construction in Kure living here these days." A wistful smile crossed the dark-haired battleship's face as the memories of her crew watching the demise of Japan's legendary battleship in Operation: Ten-gō played out once more deep in her operations room. Seeing such a ghastly sacrifice of such a beautiful ship in a useless suicide charge down to Okinawa that spring day in 1945 once again could only make the namesake of a no-maj-born professor from Dallas shake her head as she recalled what happened in November when that battleship's long-missing aircraft carrier sister took that tragic last step to embrace full humanity thanks to her crew's sacrifice.

Jane's blue eyes closed as she gently squeezed her division mate's shoulder. "That oath is there for a reason, you know."

"Doesn't make it any more difficult to swallow," Chennalton protested...

...before her free hand came up, her index finger glowing. Jane looked up as a fish just yanked out of Matsunaga-wan was stopped from flopping all over them by the younger battleship's motion stopping spell, then allowed to drop down to where the two fish-headed elderly yōkai who were obtaining their weekly catch were now seated on a floating dock. "Oi, Jijii-tachi! Be careful where you're landing those things, huh!" Chennalton scolded as she floated the fish over.

They looked up at her, then chuckled. "Gomen nasai, Chennalton-san!" the taller of the pair apologized...before his beady eyes locked on the shorter woman now standing beside Canada's last magical battleship, dressed exactly like she even if she had more medals that the younger shipgirl. "Ah! Lady Jane-san! You're visiting our humble town as well?!"

"Hai, Sensei," Jane said with the beautiful mix of accents all Canadian battleships were blessed with thanks to their place of birth at the confluence of the Saguenay and Saint Lawrence Rivers and their human namesakes — save for Chennalton's sister Argo and the first class of magical battleships built for the Dominion before the Great War — before she indicated her friend. "Patricia here made a promise to young Yurie when it concerned Commander Itō's old crew-mate when his time came."

"Ah, that's right!" the other yōkai stated. "Yurie-sama would be happy to be there for Yasuko-san! Did you hear about Yasuko-san's sister Yoiko-san?! The one of that class that was missing for all those years in the Arctic!"

Jane thumbed the younger battleship. "She did it."

"Ah...!" both yōkai trilled.

"Chennalton-sensei!"

The two battleships turned. "Oi! Mitsue-chan!" Chennalton called out, waving.

A bespectacled second-year high school student came to a stop before the battleship after pedalling her bicycle over, panting hard. She was in her school uniform, which surprised Chennalton; she knew that classes would be on for someone like Shijō Mitsue. As was pretty much the normal for all the citizens of this town, she wore a special ofuda that allowed her to see all the yōkai and other kami that haunted Onomichi. "Gomen nasai, Sensei!" Mitsue panted. "We've got a problem."

"What's that?" the battleship asked.

A moan escaped the best friend of the newest kami to call this beautiful town home. "Another shipgirl summons."

Chennalton and Lady Jane blinked...

* * *

 _ **Tomobiki town park, an hour before lunch...**_

"Oi! Guys! Do people know you're out of class?!"

Mifune Hideyuki laughed. "Oh, chill out, man! With Yonaga-san and Jersey-san here?!" He indicated the carrier and the battleship in question, who were seated nearby avidly chatting away, with New Jersey's fiancé typing on his laptop as he took down notes for relay back to the American naval senior brass back home. Right now, a whole crowd of students — mostly male, but with some girls — from all the major high schools in the area were in the park speaking eagerly with the shipgirls that were there; currently, the Ground Self-Defence Force police were patrolling Tomobiki High School. Naturally, Hideyuki — the leader of the Tomobiki High Kanmusu Appreciation Society — and his closest friends were seated with Ataru and Roma. The children from Onigakkō had been escorted back to class by Miyuki and Natsumi. Some of the female kanmusu fans were fawning over Hoppō as the installation princess relayed her stories about interacting with children of Unalaska and how she gladly saved Avalonian slaves from a Niphentaxian master who lived in Kodiak until after Blood Week, where she brought him down to allow them to effectively live free. "Oi, Ataru! I heard this weird rumour about Yonaga-san! Can you confirm?"

"Confirm what?"

"That she's a fan of POWER METAL music?!"

Ataru blinked, then he chuckled. "There's only ONE band she likes, dude."

"What?!" one of Hideyuki's friends, Hikawa Shin'ya, eagerly asked.

A smirk crossed the other teen's face before he tapped something on that iPad-like device he had on the table beside him. As some of the boys noted Ataru was going into the music files of that strange tablet, Roma's fiancé then smirked as the distant-sounding chimes of church bells rang. Taking a deep breath before a powerful guitar riff played out, he then grasped his beloved's hands while some of the people there gaped in shock on recognizing the opening refrain...

 _In the heart of the Holy See,  
_ _In the home of Christianity,  
_ _The Seat of power is in danger...!_

Everyone jolted on hearing Yonaga's deep voice mix with Ataru's and Roma's in that opening stanza, they soon joined by New Jersey and Enterprise, who were quick to recognize that memorial song written by a band from a city in central Sweden...

 _There's a foe of a thousand swords!  
_ _They've been abandoned by their lords!  
_ _Their fall from grace will pave their path...to Damnation!_

 _Then the One Hundred and Eighty-nine  
_ _In the service of Heaven!  
_ _They_ _'_ _re protecting the Holy Line!  
_ _It was 1527...  
_ _Gave their lives on the steps to Heaven!  
_ _Thy Will be done!_

At this point, all the shipgirls and a good number of students joined in...

 _For the grace, for the might of Our Lord,  
_ _For the home of the Holy!  
_ _For the faith, for the way of the sword,  
_ _Gave their lives so boldly!_

 _For the grace, for the might of Our Lord,  
_ _In the name of His Glory!  
_ _For the faith, for the way of the sword,  
_ _Come and tell their story again!_

A wild cheer escaped the students...

...before they were cut off as a bullhorn-enhanced voice bellowed, " _ **SILENCE!**_ "

Everyone stopped, then they turned. "Who are you?" Yonaga then demanded.

Standing at the west gate of the park were a small troupe of police officers, half-platoon strength in all, each of them recognizable as members of the local police box. All of them had riot gear on, many with Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine guns in their free hands. Leading them was the head of the Tomobiki-chō police box, Inspector Yamaguchi Keisuke, who was now glaring with undisguised hatred at his nephew...who had a disinterested look on his face as the music of _The Last Stand_ played on his dataPADD. Noting that, the brother of Ataru's mother Kinshō could only snarl in outrage as many students turned pale on seeing those machine pistols arc in their direction. As a couple of the girls shrieked in terror at the thought of what appeared to be _**riot police**_ moving to shoot them down for some unknown crime, an inhuman snarl escaped the young white-skinned girl standing among them. " _ **STUPID, STINKY, ALIEN-LOVING THIEVES LEAVE ATARU-NIICHAN ALONE!**_ "

Abyssal fighters leapt into the sky from Hoppō, racing at the Tomobiki police officers with weapons blazing. They screamed as bullets ripped up the ground under their feet, knocking them down as their hands let go of the MP5s. Glowing grappling chains with hooks at one end then lashed out to wrap around the flying submachine guns, pulling them clear of their grasp before they could recover their weapons and defend themselves. Their riot shields were shredded by the machine gun fire from Hoppō's airplanes as a flight of A6M2 Zero-sen fighters bearing the insignia of the Sixth Carrier Division raced from the south to strafe the faltering line of "riot police". " _ **WEAPONS HOT!**_ " New Jersey bellowed, which made the students and Professor Crowning dive for the deck as the battleship leapt off the bench, snaring the MP5s from Ataru's psychic kusarigama, a ki manifestation of a ninjutsu-ka's handy multi-purpose grappling tool which was one of the basic forms of Saikō Jinseijutsu-ryū.

"Secure the weapons, Commander Hyde!" Yonaga barked. "Destroyers, secure the prisoners! Use all force necessary!"

" _ **AYE-AYE!**_ "/" _ **HAI!**_ "/" _ **DA!**_ "/" _ **POI!**_ "

As New Jersey clicked the safeties of the submachine guns, Akatsuki and her sisters were instantly over the downed cops, their anchors and chains flailing as they moved to rip away their damaged riot shields and secure their arms with anchor chain links. Joining them were Fubuki, Yūdachi, Mutsuki and Akebono, who had come up from Yokosuka to ensure a "proper" level of escorting destroyers were in range of so many larger shipgirls in case something weird happened. "Stay down, you shitty excuses for cops!" the profane eighth of the Ayanami-class destroyers snarled after she punched Ataru's uncle down before he could scream a tonne of abuse at the shipgirls for interfering. "You're already in enough shit!"

"Do you require any assistance, Ashikaga-kaii?"

Akebono looked over, then she smirked as the captured police officers gaped on seeing a small crowd of Bokutō officers standing nearby, empty smiles on their faces; leading them was their station chief Kachō Takashi, with both Tsujimoto Natsumi and Kobayakawa Miyuki flanking him and Miyuki's would-be boyfriend Nakajima Ken standing protectively behind them all. All had their service weapons out, though pointed at the ground. "No, Kachō-keibu, but it's appreciated," the destroyer said as she moved to pull Yamaguchi up into a kneeling position, then she slammed his chin into the ground. "Stay the fuck down, asshole! The day's come for you to pay the piper for fucking around with all the people here!"

" _ **KACH**_ _ **Ō**_ _ **!**_ " Yamaguchi shrieked out. " _ **ARREST...!**_ "

" _ **SILENCE HIM, LIEUTENANT!**_ "

 _KK-KRACK!_

"He's silenced!" Akebono said after cold-cocking the older man on the chin.

As the other destroyers fully secured their prisoners, Yonaga then gazed on New Jersey. "Those machine pistols, Commander Hyde," the carrier coldly stated. "What setting were they in when they were disarmed by Patriarch Moroboshi?"

"Full auto, Captain Itō," the battleship answered.

"Cyclic rate of those things, Commander Swanson?"

"Depending on type, between 700 and 900 rounds per minute, Captain," Enterprise stated. "Nine millimetre Parabellum."

"Fucking hollow-points, too!" Jersey added after glancing into one magazine.

As the students all gasped in shock on hearing that declaration, Gángut came up to stand close to Yonaga, her own Tókarev TT-30 pistol out, though held at her side. "At this close range, Comrade Captain Itō, all these poor children would have been killed," the dreadnought stated as she indicated the people who had been seated close to Ataru and Roma. While some of the students turned to stare wrathfully at the downed police officers, Gángut added, "Your navigation officer's grandnephew would have survived thanks to his ki manipulation abilities which would have made his whole body as hard as cemented armour. These _**chekísty**_..." — she spat out that term as she glared at Yamaguchi and his friends — "...clearly didn't care about how many would fall before they could strike down their target...all in hopes of _**embezzling**_ his inheritance from his late grandmother." Here, the silver-haired dreadnought smirked as all the students gasped in horror on hearing what had driven Yamaguchi and his friends to attack Ataru. "Which they could not do thanks to the good people of the Inshin Group."

Yonaga smirked. "Which Negi Springfield-sensei was so kind to place under a Fidelius Charm to ensure that yūjo or her brother couldn't remember where the BANK was so they could try to withdraw from those accounts, correct?"

"Da!"

"'Fidelius Charm'?" Hideyuki asked as many people got back to their feet.

"It's an information-masking charm, one of the more interesting and useful ones the European magicals came up with, Hideyuki-san," the carrier explained. "Given that Ataru-san's fool parents were blocked by the will of his late grandmother from having ANY access to those funds, that yūjo went to this disgrace of a civil servant a year ago to force any legal action that could allow them to get those funds and prevent Ataru-san from getting them on gaining his maturity. Unfortunately, the issue with Ataru-san's temporal displacement prevented the Tōkyō Metropolitan Police Department from acting against these criminals until last Friday, when they were suspended from service. I believe, Inspector, you have a report about that."

The head of the Bokutō station nodded. "With the evidence presented to Internal Affairs over the last year by the Inshin Group, the conspiracy to strip Moroboshi Ataru-san of his rightful inheritance was proven even if the criminals couldn't be brought before a tribunal and properly tried for their crimes. By direct order of the Prime Minister yesterday morning, arrest warrants for them were issued, which made them hide themselves until they came here today to attack their intended victim, no doubt in revenge over the fact that Ataru-san was moving to totally cut off his estranged parents from ANY support by the Inshin Group." Kachō then smirked. "It's such a pity that as of Monday afternoon, all of Tomobiki-chō was placed under MARTIAL LAW because of that terrorist attack at Tomobiki High School!" He fixed Yonaga with a knowing look. "You are the senior officer in command here, Captain. Their fate is yours to judge unless you wish us to deal with these criminals."

Many of the captured cops paled in horror on realizing that they had just waltzed into a trap that had been expertly woven to take them down, then executed with the obvious full knowledge of the shipgirl samurai standing before them.

Given that Yonaga was clearly well versed in the IMPERIAL way of doing things...!

"Commander Fujimoto, did you capture all this?"

"Aye, Captain, I did."

Heads snapped over to see a certain heavy cruiser/news reporter standing near where the Kongō sisters had been relaxing, camcorder in hand and her younger sister Kinugasa standing protectively beside her. As some of the students snickered in delight on seeing that while the more hardcore kanmusu fans like Hideyuki were gaping in awe at Yonaga at what had to be HER plan to entrap these greedy lunatics, the barely-conscious Yamaguchi Keisuke turned to glare wrathfully at his nephew. "You...won't get away...with this, you...punk fool...!" He then cried out as Akebono smashed his head into the ground again.

"Shut up, you shitty asshole!" the destroyer snarled.

"Enough, Lieutenant!"

Eyes locked on the carrier. "We will be taking this to a different location so they can gain one chance to atone for their dishonour," Yonaga coldly declared. "Inspector, I thank you on my fleet mates' behalf for your assistance in this matter." She then gazed up towards the heavens. "Lock in on all the people in the park!" she barked out. "Transport..."

" _ **HOLD IT!**_ "

That was Ataru. "What is it, Amore?!" Roma asked.

A smirk crossed his face, then he flung his hand off to his right, sending off star-shaped balls of energy similar to photon torpedoes launched from the starship _Enterprise_ in _Star Trek_ , they streaking towards a nearby bush.

A second later, a woman's scream echoed over the park!

People turned as a high school senior dressed in the white jumper and blue skirt of Fūrinkan High School staggered out of the bush, her face bruised and bleeding from the psychic shuriken storm Ataru unleashed on her even through the branches of the plants she had been using to mask herself. As a shocked cry of recognition escaped Marubeya Momoe — who had come with several others from Class 2-4 to the park after the news of kanmusu fans heading here to meet their idols got out in the student grapevine — Ataru smirked. "Welcome to the party, Tendō-san," he said with no mirth in his voice before he lashed out with another psychic kusarigama to snare Tendō Nabiki, then yanked her right over to introduce her face to his fist!

As all the girls gasped on seeing Ataru physically HIT a girl — even a very despised one like the middle daughter of the "master" of the Tendō school of Musabetsu Kakutō-ryū — Ataru then nodded to Yonaga.

"Energize!" the carrier barked out.

" _Energizing, On_ _ē-sama_ ," a tinny woman's voice echoed all around them.

All in the park save the Bokutō police officers then disappeared in flares of materializer energy...

* * *

 _ **In high orbit over Tōkyō, a moment later...**_

" _Welcome aboard Tennō Heika Uchūkan_ Yonaga _, minna-san._ "

All the students were gaping in overwhelmed awe at the great cavern they now found themselves in. Taking a critical look at the forward hangar bay of the starship version of the seventh carrier of Operation Z, Enterprise nodded in approval. "Nicely subdivided," she commented before gazing on her host. "I assume your hangar was divided in the same manner, Captain."

"Indeed it was, Commander," Yonaga stated. "My admiral was quite forward thinking for his time. His recommendations for the necessary modifications to my hull to make me as survivable as possible were carried out. A pity such recommendations were never followed in either modifying my elder fleet mates or in constructing the younger ones." She shrugged. "For a nation that helped pioneer naval aviation, their performance in the Greater East Asia War was...disappointing."

"They were always brave, Captain," the American carrier stated. "Even those in the Special Attack Units."

"You are too courteous, Commander. Comrade Captain Jurkévich?"

"Da?" Gángut called out.

"Have the prisoners secured at the entrance to the Shrine there!" Yonaga said, pointing to the starboard forward corner of the hangar, where a simple yet elegant shrine with a wooden torii entrance had been placed.

"Da! Bring the chekísty along to the firing squad wall, Comrades!"

" _ **HAI!**_ "/" _ **DA!**_ "/" _ **POI!**_ "

The destroyers dragged the injured policemen to form a line before the steps that led up to the ship's temple. Seeing all the small boxes that were there, Musashi gaped before she looked in horror at her sister. "Onē-sama...!"

"Commander, you forget yourself!" Yonaga snapped.

The ash-haired battleship yelped as she snapped to attention so fast, one might fear for the integrity of her spine. "Forgive me, Captain! Still, I have to ask: Did you ACTUALLY bring the ashes of your crew HERE?!"

Yonaga blinked for a moment, then she chuckled. "Commander, relax. The ashes of my crew and the artifacts of the original Shrine of Infinite Salvation were taken off me before my final transformation. All is in Sasebo now. Be at ease."

"Not in the haiden, Captain?" Fubuki asked as she kicked one policeman's legs out from under him to make him kneel properly.

"No, Lieutenant, there is perfect. I will not insult the kami of my crew by bringing such pigs directly into my ship's temple."

"Da, Comrade Captain," Gángut snarled as she levelled her pistol at Yamaguchi Keisuke's head, a lethal smile crossing her face. "We shouldn't soil such a lovely little church's floor with the blood of such _**traitors to humanity**_! I pray, Tarúsha, that your sister taught you the proper interrogation techniques to make this pathetic chekíst sing like a canary."

"He won't get that chance, Galísha," Ataru coldly declared, making many of his former peers pale in horror. "All he's going to do today is SCREAM and BLEED! Right in front of Ayako-san's camera, too!" Here, he pointed to Aoba, who had positioned herself to get a clear shot of the former head of the Tomobiki police box. "Once that's been filmed, it'll be transmitted straight to Uru for the attention of she who WAS my mother!" As the captured policemen whimpered on hearing what the stupid brat they had planned to rob blind now wanted to do to not only their boss but their boss' long-suffering sister, Ataru's eyes narrowed dangerously. "I'm sure she'll find it quite _**entertaining**_...!" His lips twisted into a ghoulish smile.

"Oh, a nightmare party! I just can't wait to see it, poi!" Yūdachi crooned.

Yamaguchi gargled as it finally dawned on him what was now planned. " _ **SHINOBU-CHAN! STOP HIM...!**_ "

 _ **KK-KRACK!**_

Everyone spun around...

...then they gaped in horror on seeing Miyake Shinobu be literally slapped away from her former boyfriend by Roma's hand, sending her crashing into the deck nearby. As Yamaguchi gasped in disbelief on seeing the poor girl dropped so easily by the Italian battleship, the namesake of the Eternal City sneered. "You are lucky MY fiancé is too much the gentleman to put you down like the selfish MONSTER you really are!" She then glared at the shuddering Tendō Nabiki, who was kissing the deck now thanks to Kongō's foot. "Not unlike that greedy little would-be mafioso there! You don't have Signor Saotome anymore to protect you now, Signorina Tendō. Once we turn you over to Signorina Hayashi to see you properly PUNISHED for the HELL you put her through after she was forcibly separated from her other-self, all of Nerima will never have to fear you again!"

Seeing what had just happened to her sister, Miyake Saiko could only shake her head. "THAT, you had coming to you, Aneki."

As the others of Class 2-4 present today gaped at that cruel dismissal from the film-clone of their strongest classmate, Shinobu groaned as she felt her cheek swell up from that blow. "Ataru-...kun...!" she croaked.

Ataru's eyes narrowed. "You gave up all rights to judge my actions nine months ago, Miyake-san," he hissed, making his former girlfriend jolt on hearing such a vile, disgusted tone escape him. "First Mendō, then Inaba. Whatever personal feelings you had for me no longer mattered when you decided that you wouldn't honour what you promised me on the night before the end of the Tag Race last year." A wry smile crossed his face. "Not that I don't blame you for that, of course. Given what was happening to me, you had every right to do that...until you decided that when those invitations to my 'wedding' with Elle went out, you would do like you did with the Rosebuds and beat me down for something you KNEW I wouldn't have known of."

"And you have the temerity to call yourself one of the Church?" Roma hissed, snapping her hand up as Shinobu moved to shout her down. "Silence, girl!" the battleship shrilled as the stunned teenager cowered herself from that threatening limb. "I know the exact shiatsu points which would rob you of your strength and make you as weak as a kitten for the rest of your LIFE! Let's see how YOU like feeling helpless in the face of things that are totally beyond your control!"

Shinobu croaked before she gazed hopefully at Ataru. "Ataru-kun, please...!"

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

Then...

"You are _**dead**_ to me, Miyake Shinobu."

Shinobu cried out in horrified disbelief on hearing that icy pronouncement.

"Cross my path again...and you will be dead for REAL!" Ataru declared in a voice that was as cold as the Arctic in mid-winter.

As all of the Tomobiki High students gasped on hearing that final decoration, he walked up towards the Shrine. Stopping by Yonaga, he held out his hand. A beautiful shinobigatana in a simple black wooden scabbard, the curled tiger mon of the Moroboshi Clan on the tsuka, was produced out of nowhere by the carrier. Grasping it, Ataru then smirked as he walked up to his uncle, his eyes boring into the older man like targeting lasers. Yūdachi came up to stand beside him, holding out her hand. The sword was drawn, shocking Mendō Shūtarō on noting that the blade had a slight curvature like a proper Japanese sword and was clearly composed of the folded tamahagane steel that traditionally went into a samurai's main weapon. Said sword also had a faint reddish glow emanating from its beautifully polished blade, indicating that the steel had also been embedded with ruby mesonium, either in its forging or during the decades that Yonaga and her crew had been trapped in Sano-wan.

Handing the saya to the fourth of the Shiratsuyu-class destroyers, Ataru moved to kneel before his uncle. As Yamaguchi glared at his nephew, the smile then slipped away from the younger man's face, turning into a tranquil look that nearly made the former police officer shudder in horror on realizing that whatever respect Ataru once had for him had disappeared long ago.

"I assume, Ataru, this is some curious retribution ritual of our birth culture."

Ataru's eyebrow arched. "What are you doing here, Kaeru?"

Yamaguchi croaked out in shock on hearing that name as people turned around...

"No...way...!" Gekasawa Kumiko hissed out in disbelief.

"That's...not... _ **possible**_...!" Aisuru Satoshi stammered.

Footfalls heralded the arrival of a young man dressed in a sky blue jumpsuit with a red field across the chest patterned in a rearing horse's head, eyes glaring to the wearer's right. Save for a dimple under the left eye and the well-trimmed moustache and goatee covering his face, he was a virtual twin to the man that had saved Earth from alien invasion...and did it in so many other ways thanks to a very handy "accident" with time travel that allowed him to cut off the aliens of various neighbouring planets and their allies from causing irreparable harm on the planet while the human race was in the midst of fighting for its survival against the Abyssals. Before the man born Moroboshi Kaeru could step up to stand beside his elder twin brother, Aoba moved to get a clear shot of him, earning her a curious look from the adopted Nagussan starship engineer.

As the heavy cruiser winked at him, Kaeru's eyebrow arched in curiosity as the faint hint of a smile crossed his face under his moustache. He then perked as Shūtarō's twin Tachiko came up to stand before him. "Welcome back to Earth, Engineer-second Kaeru," she said with a bow of her head. "While you have no emotional attachment anymore with the planet of your birth, please do not consider what your brother is about to engage in as NORMAL behaviour in our land."

Kaeru nodded. "You need not apologize for something you are neither responsible for nor have caused, Mistress Tachiko. I trust you will keep your brother from exercising his rather undisciplined emotions as my brother's 'rival'." People listening to this were quick to notice the slight tone of confusion on his saying that. "Such illogical behaviour is truly unbecoming of someone who will soon inherit considerable economic, social and political influence in the State of Japan."

As Shūtarō gargled on hearing that admonishment from someone who had been reported to have DIED on New Year's Day in 2004, Kaeru and Tachiko exchanged bows, then he walked over to stand beside and behind his brother. "This miscreant is our genetic maternal uncle, Ataru?" he then asked. "I cannot perceive any sort of physical resemblance to either you or I."

"As you just said, he's only that in _**genetics**_ , Kaeru," Ataru declared. "You might want to step back. You as well, Kodachi-chan. Blood splatters all over the place when one does this type of torture." As his former classmates all croaked in horror on hearing him say THAT word, he stood up before snaring his uncle by the hair on his forehead. "Now, Jijii... _ **scream**_!" he hissed.

A second later, an inhuman howl of mortal agony echoed through the decks of THU _Yonaga_...

 _ **To Be Continued...**_

* * *

 **WRITER'S NOTES**

Translation list: **Fukuiinchō** — Literally "vice-chairman of a committee", this is the deputy representative of a class to a school student council; **Junsabuchō** — Police sergeant; **Tsukumogami** — Literally "kami of the tool", a divine spirit that first arose in an object that was at least a century old; **Órden Krásnovo Známeni** — Order of the Red Banner; **Kaii** — Literally "sea officer", this is the base title for all lieutenants in the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force; **Keibu** — Police inspector; **Tennō Heika Uchūkan** — Star Warship of His Majesty the Heavenly Sovereign (short-formed **THU** ); **Haiden** — The oratory (hall of worship) of a Shintō shrine; **Shinobigatana** — Also known as a **ninjatō** , this is the short-blade edged weapon of a ninja; **Mon** — Clan crest; **Tsuka** — Sword hilt; **Tamahagane** — Literally "round and precious steel", this is the traditional very low carbon (no more than 1.5%) steel alloy produced from iron sand used to create Japanese swords; **Saya** — Sword scabbard.

 _Urusei Yatsura_ and related stories' minor character notes:

 **Seu-Ch'ek Yech'a-Mung Hechnich'-Nakkyek** of Ait'uch Nehech (personal name **Kaep'** ) and **Seu-P'ye Yesu-Re Hechnich'-K'ekhech** of Ait'uch Nehech (personal name **Kyech** ) first appeared at this website in _Phoenix From the Ashes_. They're based on the _Koihime Musō_ versions of **Tōtaku Chūei** ( **Yue** ) and **Ryofu Hōsen** ( **Ren** ) respectfully, with physical modifications to make them Noukiites (who first appeared in _The Senior Year_ story "Arrive Reiko-chan"). Think of both Yue and Ren with Klingon-like forehead ridges under their hair and flower tattoos on their cheeks and you get the right idea.

 **B-Boy** first appeared in the manga story "Oyuki" (manga chapter #7).

 **The Gatherer** first appeared in _The Senior Year_ story "Lum's Lesson". **Henry** is the name of the super-dreadnought's controlling intelligence. Think of the late **Patrick Macnee** in the famous British 1960s television series _**The Avengers**_ and you get the right idea of how Henry loves to speak and project himself in holographic form to others.

 **Wada Keisuke** and **Taki Michiko** were shown in Miyake Shinobu's relationship chart in the anime story "Goodbye Season". Their given names are my invention.

 **Modoki Mako** and her mother **Modoki Ginko** first appeared in the manga story "The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre" (manga chapter #69). The given name of Mako's mother is my creation.

 **Hikawa Shin'ya** is another of Depecheion's characters from the Anime Addventure.

 **Moroboshi Kaeru** first appeared in _The Senior Year_ story "My Darlings United".

The **Kogane Restaurant** first appeared in the _You're Under Arrest Full Throttle_ anime episode "Strong-Arm! The Parking Violation Wrestler!" (anime episode #3).

The clothes **THG** _ **Musashi**_ ( **Itō Mutsuko** ) wears in the scene in the town park are based on her Kai Ni look. In the universe of this story, she did not get the 51 centimetre Type 0 naval cannons that she received in the **Winter 2018 Event** that also introduced new _KanColle_ characters.

Mega-thanks to **Baran3** over at Sufficient Velocity for introducing me to _**Kamichu!**_ and the rather funny characters and situations there. In the universe of this story, the events of that short anime series occur around what is often known as **Blood Week** , which occurred on 13-19 November 2011. Shortly after that, the namesake **arahitogami** ("human-form kami") of _Kamichu!_ , **Hitotsubashi Yurie** , would have summoned the living spirit of **THG** _ **Yamato**_ ( **Itō Yasuko** ) as depicted in the ninth anime episode, "Crossing the River of Time". Further details of what happened here will come in future parts.

You can read about the involvement of Canada's magical military forces in the Russian Revolution and following civil war in _Magic and Canada_.

The **Sixth Carrier Division** ( **Dai-roku Kōkū-sentai** ) is my name for the effective battle group formed around **THG** _ **Yonaga**_ ( **Itō Yoiko** ) and her air wing, which numbered over 140 aircraft. In _The Seventh Carrier_ and its sequel stories, _Yonaga_ 's air wing was never numbered, no doubt because of the ship's "commissioning" with **Unit 731**. The formation marking of CARDIV SIX would be the Imperial chrysanthemum on the engine cowl of aircraft, "F1" starting the individual aircraft number on the rudder.

The term **LK** _ **Gángut**_ ( **Galína** **Jurkévich** ) uses to address the rogue police officers in the town park, **chekíst** (plural **chekísty** ), was often applied to members of the Soviet secret state police forces throughout the years. The word comes from " **Cheká** ", which is the verbal pronunciation of the Russian letters " **ЧК** ". That is the initials for the **Vserossíjskaja Chrezvychájnaja Komíssija** (literally "All-Russian Extraordinary Commission"), which existed from 1917-22. The Cheká would eventually go through several evolutions, including the **NKVD** ( **Naródnyj Komissariát Vnútrennikh Del** ["People's Commissariat for Interior Affairs"]) from 1934-46, ultimately becoming the **KGB** ( **Komitét Gosudárstvennoj Bezopásnosti** ["Committee for State Security"]) in 1954, serving as the Soviet Union's security and intelligence group until 1991 and the breakup of the USSR.

Shipgirls introduced or mentioned in this part:

 _ **CANADA  
**_ (ship prefix **HMCS** [ **Her Majesty's Canadian Ship** ] in English or **NCSM** [ **Navire Canadien de Sa Majesté** ] in French)  
 **HMCS Chennalton** — Patricia Beatrice Chennalton  
 **HMCS Lady Jane** — Jane Jennifer Smith  
 **HMCS Argo** — Dorothy Joan Holland

 _ **JAPAN  
**_ (ship prefix **THG** [ **Tennō Heika Gunkan** ]["Warship of His Majesty the Heavenly Sovereign"])  
 **THG Shimakaze** — Toyama Sumie  
 **THG Fubuki** — Fukushima Fujiko  
 **THG Yūdachi** — Hamamoto Kodachi  
 **THG Mutsuki** — Kisaragi Mutsuko  
 **THG Akebono** — Ashikaga Akemi  
 **THG Kinugasa** — Fujimoto Kinue

 _ **UNITED STATES  
**_ (ship prefix **USS** [ **United States Ship** ])  
 **USS New Jersey** — Anne Katharine "Kathy" Hyde


	4. The Final Time for the Fallen

**_DISCLAIMER:_ _Concurrent with fair dealing clauses of the_ Copyright Act _(R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42) of Canada and fair use clauses in copyright legislation in other nations, this is a work that was created solely for entertainment purposes. Furthermore, it is posted freely on the Internet without expectation or requirement of remuneration._**

* * *

 _ **Aboard THU**_ **Yonaga** _ **in orbit over Tōkyō, Wednesday 26 April, an hour after lunch...**_

"The bodies have been disposed of, Thoughtmistress-prime."

Hearing that declaration from the senior Avalonian aboard her namesake starship, Yonaga nodded as she calmly sipped some of the herbal tea she needed to properly eat the meal that her sister was now preparing for her. "My thanks, Hinano-san," she said as she sat back in the captain's chair overlooking the several square kilometres of flight deck THU _Yonaga_ had been given due to the ten-to-one scale increase the Avalonians had employed in her construction. "Current ship status?"

Masatada Hinano nodded as she raised a dataPADD to begin her report. Yonaga knew that she had been created as an auxiliary observer to effectively take the place of the slain great-great-granddaughter of Fujita Hiroshi; the original Hinano had died in Blood Week thanks to a major assault on Hiroshima, where she had been studying for her degree in law. Ironically, the woman who had prompted the creation of the current Hinano had been an abolitionist; according to Moroboshi Negako when the grandmaster of Saikō Jinseijutsu-ryū had briefed the carrier about her namesake's caretaker staff, she stated that Hinano's "mistress" had actually been thankful for being "caught". Because of her feelings — which would probably get her lynched back on Phentax Two or some of that planet's colonies — she had been allowed to relocate to the planet Tengsei in the Alpha Centauri system; Noukiite religious refugee laws would protect her from possible retaliation from her people.

Once the report was made, Yonaga asked, "And our guests?"

"Thoughtmistress-prime Taeko will move THU _Taihō_ to assume orbit alongside us. All our guests will see her once she's alongside. They've pretty much recovered from what they witnessed on the hangar deck. Per your orders, Miyake Shinobu was beamed directly back to Tomobiki. Her emotions were still too much in a turmoil; with her inability to see people such as yourself as you really are, I doubt she will be an issue with Ataru-sama anytime in the near future. Tendō Nabiki is still in the brig per your orders; she's been demanding a lawyer come up immediately to defend her." A giggle escaped her. "She doesn't realize that she has no friends up here now and that Kanami-san is going to send her back home in bandages."

"Indeed, Roberta-san had it right about her. A would-be yakuza who cares nought for anything save herself, not even her family. Her younger sister is about to forever lose her iinazuke, her older sister has been emotionally beaten down to the point where she couldn't operate as anything other than a mere meek housewife for the rest of her life and the father is nothing more than a craven coward chasing a false dream. Never mind the thief and his lying wife..." Yonaga shook her head. "If Kanami-san requests the right to seek personal vengeance on that woman, please make sure it's done by the Shrine. If she desires witnesses, she can have them. I'm sure Momoe-san would be pleased to watch such a happening."

Hinano giggled before she sobered. "Is it going too far, Yoiko-sama?"

Yonaga's eyebrow arched. "For those who say they follow the samurai way, they have forgotten far too much, Hinano-chan," she stated. "From what I learned from Negako-sama, Kanami-san has hideously suffered from the moment of her 'birth'. Her karma was damaged the instant she was made to live a separate life thanks to that incense burner that troll Happōsai stole from the Joketsuzoku. Hai, she'll have her vengeance when her 'brother' dies thanks to her father's defiance of the power of Jusenkyō, but the others who cast her aside like a scrap of paper have not been properly taken to task for their abandonment of her. By punishing the would-be yakuza in such a way she'll never recover from, the hub of whatever information network the others of this 'wrecking crew' used over the last year will be shattered. Any attempt by the girl's foolish father to seek vengeance will see HIM done away with; you know Tennō's wishes on matters concerning those who become our special boatswain's mates. If indeed the Tendō, the Saotome and the Kunō wish to be seen as samurai, they will be held up to samurai standards. The people of Nerima have long suffered enough for all their selfish foolishness."

The bioroid nodded...

...before she perked as her empathy picked up two people approaching via the elevator. "Your sisters are here."

The rear doors to the bridge swooped open, revealing a smiling Yamato and a calm Musashi. "Please excuse us, Hinano-san," the elder of the battleships then asked. "We need to speak to Onē-sama on private matters."

"Of course, Thoughtmistress-prime Yasuko. Excuse me, please."

With that, Hinano stepped off the bridge through a side door. Once they were alone, Yamato placed a covered plate of food on the table before the captain's chair. "I hope you can eat this at least, Onē-sama," she then said as she and her sister moved to sit in nearby chairs. "Even if you are 'nuclear powered' thanks to all that mesonium in your body from the deposits in Sano-wan, you still need to replenish yourself. Cold fish and seaweed doesn't sound filling to us."

"Something Dakota-san must have told you about," Yonaga noted as she took the cover off the beautiful Kōbe steak with mixed vegetables and fluffy rice. As she tried not to make a face at the intensive smells from the food, she sipped her tea.

Yamato gaped. "How on Earth...?" She then caught herself before giggling. "Naomi-san, I believe."

"Amazing that she was America's first shipgirl," Musashi noted. "Indeed, Lassiter-daitōryō was wise to keep her existence secret. Even if she is the 'crazy one' who makes the Abyssals RUN wherever she sails, her attitudes..."

"Understandable, Mutsuko. That war in Vietnam was the most ill-run conflict in history, save for what the foolish Soviets unleashed in Afghanistan." Here, Yonaga took a small bite of the beef. "Damn! So rich...!"

"Please, Onē-sama! Take it...eh?!"

Yonaga and Musashi perked at Yamato's surprised cry, then all turned to port as their radar picked up something...

...before the outer-space version of an Agano-class light cruiser move to assume formation to THU _Yonaga_ 's port, maintaining a kilometre's distance from the outer edge of the space carrier's angled flight deck. The hull number **50** was written on the sides of her bow in the modern Self-Defence Force standard. Seeing that — the cruiser was angled in such a way that her stern couldn't be seen — Yonaga hummed as she considered that before she smirked. "Yaeko-san, I believe."

«Permission to come aboard, Captain?» a voice called out in the shipgirls' minds.

"Granted, Commander," Yonaga called out.

A materializer beam then allowed the third of the Agano-class light cruisers to appear on the bridge close to the navigation officer's station. Once she was fully aboard, Yahagi snapped to attention, saluting her dear friend's long-missing sister. "Captain Itō," she formally began. "Lieutenant Commander Ōkawa Yaeko reporting with Tennō Heika Uchūkan _Yahagi_ to serve as primary escort for Tennō Heika Uchūkan _Yonaga_ and Tennō Heika Uchūkan _Taihō_ in the current operation."

"So ordered by Teitoku?"

"Hai, Captain."

"Very well, Yaeko-san. At ease."

The cruiser nodded before she moved to sit beside Yamato. Noting how similarly the two were dressed, Yonaga could only shake her head at the sense of humour the Kami clearly had when it came to allowing her sister and her old companion from Operation: Ten-gō to come back dressed as they did. The carrier knew it was that young arahitogami now living in Onomichi near Hiroshima, Hitotsubashi Yurie, who had brought her eldest battleship sister back as a kanmusu in the late fall of 2011 after Blood Week, when Yamato's living spirit called out from her shattered wreck 100 kilometres west-northwest of Gaja-shima in the Ryūkyū Islands to get the chance to spiritually return to her birthplace at Kure. That Yamato had been strong enough to fight the understandable Abyssal retaliation for "losing" such a prized ship spirit enhanced her karma admirably — in the Battle of Onomichi, Yurie had also been able to call back the spirits of Yahagi as well as destroyers Isokaze, Hamakaze, Asashimo and Kasumi to help Yamato in successfully repelling the sea yōma — even if the raging hunger that overcame Japan's first super-battleship in the wake of that fight made her deploying overseas questionable until more supplies could pour in from Canada, Russia, Korea and America to make sending Yamato and later Musashi out more economical.

It was no wonder that the battleship also known as Itō Yasuko eventually became such an incredibly good chef.

"Still having trouble eating?" Yahagi wondered.

Yamato smirked. It didn't surprise her that the light cruiser equivalent of the "Tin Can Mafia" information network picked up on that so easily. "Fortunately, the Ryūseizen were able to help Onē-sama eat some normal foods, Yaeko-chan."

Yahagi considered that before she blinked. "Was it _**her**_ , Yoiko-san?"

Yonaga's eyebrow arched, then she smiled. "Yes, it was her, Yaeko-san." She raised a finger in warning. "I cannot speak her name, though. Tennō ordered me to silence. However, if Fate does give the chance, do take advantage of it."

Here, she glanced down in the direction of the area of Hiroshima. Yamato and Musashi were quick to note that...

* * *

 _ **The ship's wardroom, that moment...**_

"Doesn't it sicken you, Kaeru-kun?"

The man now known on the planet Nagussa as Kaeru ryi'Kouhae-Raikue blinked on hearing that pained question from Gekasawa Kumiko, then he sipped the simple tea that had been prepared for him by one of the bioroid culinary staff aboard THU _Yonaga_. "Were they not acknowledged as having done criminal acts against Ataru in support of my genetic mother's drive to seek wealth she was not entitled to, all because of Ataru's emotional immaturity and legal status?"

Many of the girls now seated close to the adopted son of two of Nagussa's leaders blinked as they interpreted his wordy phrase, then they nodded. "Hai, they were!" Marubeya Momoe noted. "And I can understand why the Metropolitan Police permitted Yonaga-sama to do what she ultimately did." She paused as her stomach churned as the memories of Moroboshi Ataru _**skinning alive**_ his maternal uncle Yamaguchi Keisuke before beheading him with a straight blow by his granduncle's shinobigatana played once more before her mind's eye. While she had thrown up her breakfast after that happened — which hadn't bothered Yonaga at all; no doubt, the long-missing seventh carrier of Operation Z had expected such reactions from those students, knowing they had been relatively sheltered from the horrors of the Abyssal War — she had been given some special medication from the starship's staff of healers which would keep the nightmares suppressed and her stomach calm.

Then again, given that it was Yonaga's sister who cooked lunch...!

"What do you mean, Momoe-chan?" Sugihara Nara then asked.

"Could you imagine the SCANDAL that would have broken out if this all went to trial, Nara-chan?" Momoe asked. "The police don't need that sort of thing. It wouldn't be contained in Tomobiki like if it had happened weeks ago, before that whole time loop started for Kaeru-kun's brother. Given how much people outside town see Ataru-kun as a MULTIPLE TIME saviour of ALL HUMANITY, the idea of his own UNCLE stealing HIS INHERITANCE — when it was expressly FORBIDDEN in his late grandmother's will for his parents to touch a single yen of that! — would have a LYNCH MOB on the bastard and his friends as soon as they were brought out in public! Never mind how the Mafia — which Roma-sama is affiliated to — would react to it!"

"The _**Mafia**_?!" Kumiko demanded.

"Momoe is correct, Kumiko."

Eyes locked on Kaeru, who had been busy gazing at the stars around his birth planet. "My future sister-in-law — when she was still a warship — had blood and affiliated members of the Vongola Family serving on her when she was sunk," the adopted Nagussan engineer reported. As the girls shuddered on remembering Sawada Tsunayoshi and his friends — especially Hibari Kyōya — from their meeting the people of Namimori on NSI _Roma_ on Monday, he added, "They are masters of a form of metahuman power known as 'dying will flames'. Such a power allows one to manipulate one's life energy to create many effects, similar to what Yizibajohei are capable of doing." As the girls gaped, Kaeru raised a finger in caution. "They do, however, acknowledge a law of secrecy concerning the existence of that power. Please keep that information to yourself."

"We've already got an exception to the Statute of Secrecy when it comes to magicals, Kaeru-kun," Momoe noted. "I doubt any information about metahuman mafia would make people in Tomobiki blink." She sighed. "Not like what your brother did."

The others nodded. "Once people learn that Yonaga-sama will allow that sort of thing — especially when it comes to anyone Ataru-kun might want to go after to get vengeance over what was done to him over the last year — people will back off right there," Nishihara Ikue noted as she leaned her head on the palm of her hand. "Except for morons like Megane, of course."

"Not that they will be missed much," Kumiko noted.

The girls laughed. As soon as they were moved to the wardroom to recover from the scene near the Shrine of Infinite Salvation, Aisuru Satoshi began to rant and rave about finding a way to bring Redet Lum back to Earth in hopes of getting the "one proven way" to control Ataru back in range to keep him "suppressed". After the Avalonians bashed the Stormtroopers down — given that the bioroids had many reasons to loathe their old masters' "goddess", they didn't care one bit about the woman's loyal fans living in Tomobiki — the third of the Littorio-class battleships warned the leader of the Stormtroopers that she looked forward to having Lum come back to Earth...so that Roma could KILL her "rival" for Ataru's hand in marriage and remove her presence from Existence forever. What was worse, there would be NOTHING that Lum's father Invader or her "most faithful" on Phentax Two could do to avenge the stupid girl; Roma had been happy to remind Megane and his friends of what happened on Monday afternoon when the battlewagon _Repia_ was destroyed near the Ceres orbit line.

The idiots who screamed out against the battleship's plot to "hurt dear, sweet Lum-san" then got put in the brig.

"Pity Shinobu-chan didn't let it go," Momoe then mused.

The other girls gazed at her, then they all nodded...

* * *

 _ **Onishuto on Uru, the Onishuto Central Medical Facility, an hour later (local date and time: The First Day of the Fourth Month, nightfall)...**_

A wailing shriek escaped one room in the intensive care ward.

As the duty nurse flipped on noise-suppression fields to prevent people from hearing Moroboshi Kinshō screaming her guts out, Redet Invader could only take a breath as he shook his head. He just saw the "special news flash" transmitted by one Lieutenant Commander Fujimoto Ayako of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defence Force — supposedly the living spirit of the old Imperial Japanese Navy heavy cruiser _Aoba_ made mortal flesh — sent through the Ceres observation post to Uru concerning what happened on the hangar deck of the namesake starship of the aircraft carrier his would-be son-in-law's paternal granduncle had served on concerning that boy's maternal uncle...and what Moroboshi Ataru had done to seek vengeance over the attempted THEFT of his own INHERITANCE that had been set aside for him by his late grandmother Nagaiwakai.

 _Maidens! No wonder Mister Groom rejects the whole idea of marrying Lum...!_

"Why did we make a deal with that woman again, Husband?"

That was his wife Chim, who was in the bed next to his in a private suite in the intensive care ward. Both of them were swathed over half their bodies in healing bandages to remove the third-degree burns from their skin and underlying tissue. In addition to that, there were pressure dressings keeping their broken limbs set in place; Invader had both lower arms broken by a collapsing beam while Chim had her right thigh broken by another. Despite the fact that all the alien guests had been hurt to one extent or another when the wedding was to be held days before in the Onishuto Cathedral, no one had died. An odd "mercy" from the "king" of Noukiios' heavenly dragons, the ancient spiritual patron of the Dragonspeaker herself.

The woman who had effectively walked Ataru into the Battle of Morningstar Plain.

And guaranteed he would become a monster the likes of which NONE in the Galactic Federation could imagine him becoming.

Not to mention reveal his affiliation to the Maidens of the Eternal Voyager.

If what King Fuyu had told Invader when he visited after that meeting aboard USS _Missouri_ was true...!

"I too regret it now, my wife," the large battlewagon captain said with a tired sigh as he laid back on his bed. "We let too many things get out of control when it came to our daughter. Not that we expected a lot of this...!"

"We shouldn't have allowed her to get away with that lie," his wife lamented. "Sooner or later, Ataru would have learned the truth. Given what is etched on the vambraces of his armour, he clearly disapproved when Hensō informed him of the laws."

Invader nodded, a surge of guilt ripping up his spine as the truth surrounding his second daughter by genetics raced through his mind. To believe he and the fathers of both Shigaten Benten and Oyuki had allowed that sweet-talking murderous sycophant Ōgi ot'ndai-Zkuhsbagh to get away with actually declaring that living _**bioroids**_ were nothing more than mere _**gynoids**_ like the human-like pleasure machines the Zeiwanites often used. While a part of him felt awe that Ataru had gone forth to help liberate the Avalonians from slavery like he did, the sheer scale of ANGER those poor women felt now scared him to death. And with their now accessing the technology of their creator race on lost Sagussa — which was THOUSANDS of years more advanced in many realms than what Uru possessed — and that they were willing within reason to share such with the Terrans would totally transform the local cluster in a way that would terrify a lot of galactic leaders.

Was the lad really ready to become the leader of the _**Maidens of the Voyager**_?!

To be the _**Chosen One**_...?

 _Oh, Lady Noa, why did you choose_ _ **him**_ _of all people...?! He's a good lad despite his issues, but he's not ready for THAT...!_

"Captain, you'll be amazingly surprised at what Ataru is capable of doing."

Both Invader and Chim gasped at that soft voice, then they turned...

...before both of them gaped in awed shock at the petite woman now standing at the foot of the captain's bed, dressed in a VERY familiar black-and-gold jumpsuit that displayed a considerable amount of cleavage framed by the phoenix-like symbol long accepted as the main sigil of the Maidens of the Eternal Voyager, the Great Birth Mothers of the Fifth Republic of Sagussa. "Lady Noa!" both of them cried out as they instantly bowed to this reincarnation of their world's greatest hero.

"Relax!" Aruka Noa called out before she perked as shocked cries echoed from the main floor as doctors and nurses all gaped at the sight of the reborn elder of the Maidens of Aruka now visiting their highest ranking local patients. "Relax!" Noa barked out again. "Lufy! Go into that room and shut that kimei'aidoei up, please! I'm sure the good healers here don't want to listen to that creature scream out at the fact that her son has finally caught onto her schemes!"

"En, Ashi'cha!" a rough voice with a powerful Yehisrite-Falcros cant to the tones echoed from the main reception area.

A couple seconds later, a muffled scream of pain escaped Kinshō's room. As the doctors and nurses flashed Noa grateful looks even if all of them were still staring in awe at her, she took a deep breath before she gave the Invaders an apologetic look as she sat down beside the captain's bed. "If we had only known what Kouhae and Raikue had discovered when they rescued Kaeru from death all those years ago." As Lum's parents perked — thanks to Aoba's video, they now knew of Ataru's twin brother — Noa added, "They were exploring the local cluster in the wake of the downfall of the Goa'uld to observe how the races around the 'Tau'ri' homeworld were recovering from what the System Lords did. They were in Japan when Kaeru had his accident. Their logic..." Here, an amused smile crossed her face. "Escaped them when they saw how much Kaeru was suffering. So they took him to a Majujjō elder close to Nagussa to have him healed, then moved to return him to Earth..."

She then thumbed in the direction of Kinshō's room. "They saw how much she was verbally abusing her surviving son, then assumed that Kaeru would get the same treatment," Chim concluded as she tried not to scream out in laughter.

"Exactly," Noa finished. "When they learned we had Ataru as our guests as his own emotions allowed us to fully develop our own a decade ago during his two months with us, they warned us about Ataru's parents. He himself lamented how much his mother always treated him badly." She took a deep breath. "But we, unlike our counterparts on Nagussa, weren't experienced enough to understand that this was child abuse Ataru was enduring, so we returned him home to await his reaching emotional maturity." A wry smile crossed her face. "In a strange sense, Thoughtmistress-prime Negako became more of a mother to Ataru than his birth mother. As you'll no doubt suspect, she is now Ataru's legal guardian, though he is on his way to becoming emancipated before reaching legal age in Japan. Given his experiences..." She sighed. "We all failed him to one extent or another. Lyna, it's a miracle he turned out so well and was willing to accept the Master's gift to help him control that anger..."

Lum's parents winced. The Noukiite ambassador to Uru had thoroughly briefed them on Morningstar Plain and the overt interest of old Sagussa's GOD OF DEATH when it came to their would-be son-in-law that allowed him to become the Cyborg and fight at the side of the Dragonspeaker during that brutal battle near the capital city of Okusei. They had also seen thanks to their THIRD genetic child the images of Ataru's fight against the Messina Princess on the previous year's Christmas Day, saving the living spirit of the Italian battleship _Roma_ from dying thanks to a hideous bout of post-traumatic stress disorder by personally dismembering that creature with his bare hands, plus sinking her fleet in the Messina Straits with that eye-mounted ki powered pulse laser of his. Seeing the poor woman hold the lad for dear life, screaming and wailing as the memories of her sinking in 1943 rolled through her mind for an hour until her elder sisters came from Taranto to find out what happened...!

"It's a marei'cha bond, you mean," Invader observed.

"You know of that?" Noa wondered.

"Nassur told us," he admitted, earning him a delighted smile from the effective moral leader of the Daishi'cha. "You've met?"

"Shortly after the Thoughtmistress-prime was allowed to live her own life and Lady Tuyuki..." — Noa gave them apologetic looks as Lum's parents shivered on hearing THAT battle name — "...was allowed to live again, I led a delegation to Okusei to brief Ataru on the last decade's events on Sagussa. As you'll both know, the Hunter Commander was invited to Okusei by Chancellor Nakkyek to be briefed on what happened to Ataru. I actually meet Hunter-prime Cinba back when Lum had her accident with the Central Warp Chamber when she was four. It turns out she was teleported to the farm owned by Ataru's paternal uncle Komeru in Sendai. I was there at the time with the _Hasei'cha_ — that's Lufy's ship — looking for a potential Daimon'cha candidate when we noted the warp signature, then I went down to investigate. Ataru had taken Lum under his protection while Komeru and his mother tried to figure out what to do with her. I arranged to take Lum to Cinba, who was in Tōkyō at the time meeting with members of the Special Committee based there. She was then returned to you, safe and sound." She then giggled as one particular memory of that incident came back. "Even then, she was calling Ataru 'Darling'."

"Did he tag her horns?!" Chim asked, the hope in her voice apparent.

Noa gazed at her, then she sighed. "Chim, much that I am very sympathetic to your desire to get your daughter away from this MADNESS that surrounds her here thanks mostly to her 'most faithful' and what people like Yethis and his ilk want to do to her if they get the chance, you know the laws. A child tagging the horns of another child is not seen as a marriage tag."

Lum's parents winced at that affirmation...then they blinked as Noa smiled at them. "Would you believe it was Tariko who may provide a solution to Lum's issues here...and in a way that even the moderates of the Round could accept?"

That made Invader and Chim perk. "What do you mean?" the latter asked.

Noa's dark amethyst eyes glittered in anticipation...

* * *

 _ **In a nearby room...**_

"Darling...Darling CAN'T be the Chosen One...he CAN'T...!"

Hearing their best friend continuously sob that statement after watching several recordings of what befell Moroboshi Ataru over the previous year, both Shigaten Benten and Oyuki could only shake their heads in sympathy at how much Redet Lum was suffering from the sheer supernova of revelations that had been dumped on her over the last couple of days after she regained consciousness from nearly being ROASTED ALIVE by a three millennia old spirit dragon from Noukiios. Given that Ataru was now fully aware of his power as the Chosen One of the Eternal Voyager — as he so readily demonstrated to Oyuki's father not a day before in that flag-of-truce meeting hosted by the Noukiites aboard that American star battleship then in orbit over Jupiter which had been attended by the famous President Josiah Bartlet — the chances of Lum ever trying to win Ataru away from the third of the Littorio-class battleships given human form were growing dimmer by the microsecond...

Never mind what the living spirit of the fifth of the Yamato-class was more than willing to allow her junior navigation officer's grandnephew to do when it came to seeking final revenge on those who had hurt him.

And given what now burned in the man's very SOUL...!

"All this was a fucking scam by that bitch Moroboshi calls a mother to get his inheritance from his grandma," Benten muttered as she tried not to twitch too much from the tingling feelings of the burned parts of her body. "Isn't that rich? No wonder Moroboshi went ballistic over that fucking dirty cop he called an uncle." She shook her head. "You saw how cool he was..."

Oyuki grimly nodded as she tried not to look ill. "Given he was in the heart of that battle on Okusei when this Master of Entropy gave him that 'gift', it doesn't surprise me in the end that he could be so emotionless when he tortured and killed that man." A wry smile crossed her face. "Amazing that man's co-conspirators refused to have Ataru stand as their second when they committed seppuku. I can't imagine the pain they went through when they cut themselves open like that."

"Trying to deny Moroboshi his final revenge, no doubt," Benten noted. "The folks in Japan are like Yehisrites in a way, Oyuki. Death don't scare them as much as it does other folk; it's an expected part of life. That kinda explains Moroboshi even when his brain was out to lunch thanks to this Negako being in his head all those years. He wanted just to live his life."

"Knowing it could end anytime and without any sort of warning," Oyuki finished, shaking her head. "Well, this 'promise' he was tricked into making when he was six was fulfilled in a way that allowed him to live his life as he would desire to live it. Fate was the only one responsible for bringing Lady Roma into his life when he destroyed that installation princess at Messina. While I'm sure Lord Nengmek'i hoped something like that would happen, I doubt he planned it personally."

"Nah! Dragons on Noukiios are always up in the clouds all the time. They see things way differently than normal folks like we do." Benten sighed as she laid back on her bed. "Did you know about these Abyssals, Oyuki?"

"Honestly, no," the crown princess of Neptune admitted. "Pukaze knew, though. She did report it to Father, but suggested that it be kept secret so as to not alarm the Federation as a whole. After all, the whole issue with those creatures could be seen as a metahuman revolution similar to the Dawn of Power." The whole room seemed to chill on her saying THAT phrase. "I'm sure the observers on Ceres were ordered by Rei's uncle to keep quiet on the issue until they were replaced at the order of Chancellor Nakkyek just after the Tag Race to blind everyone as to what was really going on Earth. Given how peaceful Earth seemed when Lum-cha went there to have the Tag Race with Ataru, it was an easy mistake to make."

"No problems with those monsters," Benten concluded. "I can guess why Ōgi kept quiet about that whole thing. If Lum got into trouble even with a little one like that Hoppō girl, he could have swept in to 'save' her..."

"Not realizing he was being cut off day after day thanks to Lady Negako and those of They Who Must Never Be Named on Earth acting to remove his observers from the planet," Oyuki finished with an amused grin. "I have to admit, Ataru's move to have that lunatic sent directly to Admiral Ninsur for trial and imprisonment during the Liberation was simply inspired."

"Still are a shitload of mindless dolts on that planet."

"But contained thanks to President Miree."

Benten considered that before she nodded. She now knew of the civil war in the Niphentaxian Union thanks to broadcasts from the Interplanetary News Network on Zeiwan over the last week catching the local cluster up on events in that system during and after the Liberation. The former chief priestess of the Church of Hollywood, Miree ot'ndai-Bohgar, was now consolidating her own anti-Church of Lum government on Phentax Fourteen, with the overwhelming majority of the natives of the Union in the colonies on her side. Only the homeworld itself remained in control of the "one true faith" under Ōgi's second-in-command, Fangi t'ndai-Marthon. While heads of state in the other worlds of the Galactic Federation were going to panic stations because of the total loss of the "Army of Lum" — the nickname of the Niphentaxian Defence Force while Ōgi served as president of the Union — during the Liberation nine months ago, the fact that the Avalonians had graciously allowed Miree's forces to retain nearly six hundred factory satellites to build a new space force...never mind the action of the Mistress of Time and Space, the _**Weaver**_ , in literally closing off the Phentax system from outside intrusion, especially from Ipraedos...!

"Old man Schwartz would be disappointed now," the adopted daughter of the vice-commandant of the Fukunokami central government then cackled. "Did you see those new star destroyer designs those people came out with in the last six months?"

"Indeed, they are very nice. And quite unique, I should add!" Oyuki noted. "Amazing! It appears that Elder Ganzo was right all along. Enslaving the Avalonians did nothing for the Niphentaxians except make them totally forget the fact that they COULD create their own society on their own with the blending of all the knowledge they got from other worlds. All it needed was the right sort of push to get it done. Despite all the deaths in the Liberation, they came out of it quite well."

Benten nodded. "Guess it still does bother Moroboshi deep down. He just knows how to bottle it in these days..."

"Which is to his detriment."

Hearing that toneless woman's voice, both Oyuki and Benten paled as someone who looked like Ataru's own fraternal twin sister aged to about twenty Earth years stepped into the room. As they took in that black martial arts gi with the pleated umanori hakama trousers and the black belt drawn around her waist, the gold kanji **地** at the ends of the belt, Lum's head snapped up to let her stare directly at Moroboshi Negako. Total shock crossed the warlord daughter's face for a second before a look of cyclonic rage flooded her body, her whole body instantly sparking. " _ **YOU...!**_ " she shrieked as she elevated herself out of the bed while moving to focus all her bio-electricity at this monster that had hurt her husband so much.

Negako's eyebrow arched in amusement as she raised one hand, a ki field forming around it.

"Oh, SHIT...!" Benten gasped as the ki field literally leapt out of the ninjutsu grandmaster's hand to wrap around Lum.

The results were...predictable.

"Ittacha...!"

As the violently-twitching Lum — who just got electrocuted by her own lightning thanks to Negako's use of the Paranormal Power Inverse Fire-Bomb attack, which used one's ki to literally reflect any type of energy attack on its perpetrator — dropped back onto her hospital bed, the current Steward of the Moroboshi Clan moved to her side, then manipulated a couple points on top of Lum's head. "There," she then pronounced. "All your paranormal powers are disabled until you properly heal and learn proper self-discipline." As Oyuki and Benten both gasped on hearing that statement, Negako moved away. "Your reckless behaviour will get you killed if the circumstances are correct. Much that Ataru is angry at you for your lies and half-truths, Lum, he still sees you as a friend and does not wish to weep over your ashes in case your immaturity sees you _**killed**_."

"Oh, Onē-sama, stop that!"

Negako turned while Benten and Oyuki looked to see a female version of Ataru at his physical age step in, dressed in a turtleneck sweater and form-fitting jeans. As both the crown princess of Neptune and the Fukunokami biker-babe breathed out in relief on immediately sensing this was NOT Moroboshi Tariko, the newcomer then made her way to the foot of Lum's bed. "Much that Redet-san is a stubborn woman at times, she doesn't need to be treated so harshly," she added.

"Who are you?" Benten demanded.

The newcomer's eyebrow arched as if she was amused by something, then she whipped out a traditional war banner from nowhere, the word **LOVE** written in red on the white field. Seeing that and remembering what they had learned about Redet Danu, both Oyuki and Benten sighed. "You're Ataru's film-replica," the former then declared before she giggled. "I trust the gender reassignment isn't bothering you too much. How are the replicas of Shūtarō and Lum-chan's 'fans' adjusting?"

"They're adjusting quite well, Denka-sama," Moroboshi Hiromi stated with a polite bow of her head, surprising Oyuki at her not addressing the crown princess by name as Ataru had done. "I will convey your good wishes to them."

"Oi! Hiromi! You don't need to be that formal!" Benten protested.

"Shigaten-san, I realize that is your way. It is not MY way," Hiromi gently scolded as she glared at her in disapproval. "We have just met even if Danu-san obviously gave me a good character reference if you knew my name. In MY society, it's rude to address a stranger by given name, much less address a crown princess by name. You can't ask me to deviate from that, can you?" She gazed knowingly at the stunned Lum. "Would you not agree, Redet-san?" she then asked as her eyebrow arched.

Negako shook her head. "Such useless formalities..."

"Onē-sama!"

As Hiromi moved to berate her sister, Lum, Benten and Oyuki just stared at them, blinking in confusion...

* * *

 _ **The Invaders' room...**_

"What the hell was THAT?!"

Noa sighed. "It appears that one of the Thoughtmistress-prime's all too many quirks is making itself apparent," she noted.

"Noa!"

The Elder Mother of Sagussa winced. "Hai...?"

"Cease calling me 'thoughtmistress-prime'," Ataru's adopted sister coldly declared. "You know my feelings on that matter."

"Hai!" Noa trilled out...

...then she perked as shouts exploded from a nearby examination room, making her and Lum's parents perk in confusion. Standing, the chestnut-haired Seishin-turned-Sagussan minister without portfolio peeked out of the room to see several doctors and nurses working hard on one of the other guests who had been badly hurt at the Cathedral days before. Seeing the coquettish green-haired Oni woman Lum's age — who was far more than that as Noa could sense thanks to her empathy and her inner eye to the Te'a — standing there as the healers moved to save her father's life, the Elder Mother could only smirk as she glanced briefly at Negako, who now stood at the entrance of the shared recovery room holding Lum and her friends. Seeing the ninjutsu grandmaster's eyebrow arch slightly in a show of what was considerable amusement to the normally VERY reserved woman, Noa smirked as she reached to one of the metal cuffs of her jumpsuit, tapping a control to open a hatch there. Pulling out a small device, she placed it on the wall next to the doorway, then tapped it. Both of Lum's parents were quick to sense a faint surge of energy flood their room, which made them gaze in curiosity at their honoured guest.

"As you'll probably know, you're being monitored by Yethis' close allies in the Defence Intelligence Directorate," Noa quietly stated as she moved to sit down by Invader's bed. "That just disabled all the sensors put into this room."

"And they can't afford to make a show of walking in here to do an 'inspection' due to the guests from other planets such as Oyuki-cha and Kurama," Chim finished with an amused smile. Much that Seq Yethis was a distant cousin, Lum's mother was a Unionist through and through; to her, the Imperial Round had no place in Urusian society. "Who is that, by the way?"

"Skelad Slan," Noa answered. "As of now, he's brain-dead. His elder daughter Lara — or rather, the NEW version of your daughter's old kindergarten classmate — rendered him that a couple hours ago with a telepathic force bolt."

Lum's parents gaped. "She's one of you?" Invader asked.

"She's an Avalonian replica of her, with her soul derived from a Type 33G gynoid replica of hers built on special order by your daughter's friend Chara at the request of the original Skelad Lara. That was to ensure that Renning Uday's young daughters Shunran and Mayhan could be raised in peace and not be 'killed' for their being women by that monster that is their father."

"What happened to the real Lara?" Chim asked.

"Dead," Noa answered in a cold voice. "To make sure her replica worked perfectly, a mesonium memory-copying crystal was inserted into Lara's mind to ensure the replica could obtain real-time knowledge from the template. When Tariko discovered what was going on, she transformed the gynoid Lana into a bioroid. Doing that killed the original. Fortunately, Kasuga Ayumu — the current Infinity — was able to make the original disappear while the replica took her place, with no one the wiser."

The jaws of the physically older people dropped in shock. "Are the kids safe?" Invader then asked.

"Of course. And don't worry about General Uday, Captain; he's got something coming to him soon enough thanks to the replicas of the girls' mothers." At their confused looks, the elder mother smirked. "Created the same way."

"Damn...!" Invader then breathed out.

"So why are you so concerned about Slan?" Chim then asked. "Yes, he's an under-the-table supporter of Yethis and his friends in the Round, but Lara is pretty much her father's daughter..." Her voice then trailed off as it hit her.

Noa's blue eyes sparkled. "The _original_ Lara was as much an Imperial radical as her father, Chim." She then winked. "I doubt the _**new**_ Lara would want to force your daughter into that situation as she pursues her hand in marriage."

Both of Lum's parents gaped at their guest...

* * *

 _ **Near Rannoch in Scotland, the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, an hour later (local time: An hour before breakfast)...**_

"Master Harry! Master Harry, wakes up!"

A moan escaped the young man in his bed within the freshman boy's dorm in the Gryffindor tower. "I'm up! I'm up...!" Harry Potter-Yamamoto moaned as he reached for his glasses and slipped them on, then he looked over to see the elderly chief house elf of the castle, Lizzy, standing beside his bed, a frustrated look on the poor creature's face. "What is it, Oba-san?" he asked as he sat up in bed while groans and murmurs escaped some of his dorm mates from all the noise.

Lizzy blushed a deep grey on being addressed as "aunt" by the Boy Who Lived. "Lizzy is sorry for disturbing Harry Potter's sleeping time, but there's a problem in the kitchens!" she hissed out. "Lady Shinano and Lady Izumi are here in kitchens now! They's be COOKING, Harry Potter! Both seems very upsets, not wantings to make their sister upsets! But Lizzy knows how much Great Lady Yamato and Lady Musashi loves their sisters! Why's Lady Shinano and Lady Izumi so upsets?!"

Harry blinked as both Neville Longbottom and Ronald Weasley got up, both confused and curious by the elderly elf's moaned words. "What's up, mate?" the latter then asked as Harry moved to get his housecoat on.

"Two of the shipgirls from back home are in the kitchens cooking up a storm, Ron. I think," Harry answered, making the other boys blink in surprise. "They're two of the Yamato-class shipgirls, Shinano and Izumi." He blinked again as something came to him before he stared once more at Lizzy. "Oba-san, is Shizuka-chan making pancakes?" he then asked.

"Yes! Lady Shinano is making LOTS of pancakes! Even gettings phoenixes to brings in nice cloudberries from Siberia! How does Lady Shinano know how to asks phoenixes to brings nice cloudberries so Lady Izumi can makes jam, Harry Potter?!"

Harry blinked. "I don't know...!"

Ron and Neville gazed with concern at him...

"Harry!"

All three boys turned as the others in the dorm were woken up by the shout of Ron's older brother Percy, who just charged into the room. "What is it, Percy?" the adopted son of Nagato then asked, noting the older teen's worried look.

Percy waved him to follow. "You have to see this."

Harry nodded, then raced off after him...

* * *

 _ **Five minutes later...**_

" _ **THAT'S SO POI!**_ "

As the muggleborns and normal-raised half-bloods all whooped and cheered at the sight of town-sized _**starship**_ versions of the large Japanese aircraft carrier _Shinano_ and the super-battleship _Izumi_ floating serenely side-by-side over the Black Lake, Albus Dumbledore — who was doing his best to maintain some sort of composure at a surprising event like this — looked at the Boy Who Lived. "Um...I take it, Harry, that you have no idea what this is all about," the headmaster commented.

People quieted down as they gazed hopefully on Harry, who now had a grin that threatened to split his face in half. "Honestly, Professor, I had no idea that the Avalonians were doing THIS!" he said as he waved to THU _Shinano_ , which was closer to the castle than her effective sistership. "They probably did this to give us a good-sized space fleet to stop the alien bakayaro from causing trouble here on Earth, like they did for Ataru-niichan all the time in Tomobiki. But...!" He shrugged.

"He has no idea why Lady Shinano and Lady Izumi are busy cooking up a storm inside the kitchens, Professor," Ron finished.

That made Dumbledore blink. "They're cooking breakfast?"

"Yes, Master-headmaster!" Lizzy said from beside the man who defeated Gellert Grindelwald on the summer solstice in 1945. "Makings lots and lots of pancakes! Nice pancakes, too! Lady Shinano bes teachings Lady Izumi how to makes good pancakes because they wants to feeds their sister! Somethings terrible happens to Lady Shinano's and Lady Izumi's sister that prevents her from eatings properly!" The elf began to cry. "Lizzy only hopes Great Lady Yamato and Lady Musashi are well! Couldn't nice goddess that brings Great Lady Yamato back to fights Evil Ones after Blood Week helps her eats?!"

Dumbledore smiled as he gave the elderly elf a knowing look. "Lizzy, I'm sure Lady Yurie would move the Heavens Themselves to help Commander Itō if she suffered such a horrible curse! We all know how much she cares for the commander!"

"But what if nasty stalebloods tries something evils against Great Lady Yamato?!"

As the staff and many students gaped on hearing that despised _Canadian_ insult for traditional purebloods escape Lizzy's lips, the headmaster sighed. "Must remind the Foresters to not visit the castle all the time..." he quietly muttered.

"Bumblebee!"

Dumbledore perked, then he looked over. "Good morning, Vicky!"

Everyone turned, then many of the students gasped on seeing the traditionally-dressed one-armed first rate man-of-war in human form that was the spiritual grandmother of all of Britain's shipgirls, dressed as her beloved admiral had been when he was struck down on her main deck in the midst of the Battle of Trafalgar. Much to Ron's personal delight, a certain fast super-dreadnought veteran of the Battle of Jutland was accompanying Victory, walking on the new shoes that the youngest of the sons of Arthur Weasley had made for her even if she still used her cane. "Good morning, Professor, everyone," Warspite called out. "My, good thing these starships can put up a counter-detection cloak that prevents the Air Force from scanning them now in orbit over the lake here." She then smiled at Ron, winking at him, which earned him knowing looks from his brothers.

"The Avalonians created these ships, Aunt Charlene?" Harry asked to confirm his earlier statement, pointing at _Shinano_.

"Indeed they did, Harry," the second of the Queen Elizabeth-class battleships affirmed with an embarrassed smile. "Much that we do appreciate their building them, that they're at a **ten-to-one** scale from us as warships is rather disconcerting!"

Ron perked on hearing that from his friend and frequent chess partner. "Ten-to-one scale...?" His eyes then wide. "Blimey! You were almost a furlong long when you were a warship, Charlene! That would be a TEN FURLONG ship!"

As the other magically-raised people gaped in shock at such a huge size for a FLYING SHIP, Warspite chuckled. "Indeed. Haven't had the chance to go aboard and try her out a bit." She then perked before looking south. " _ **STAY UP THERE!**_ "

" _But Ashoi'cha...!_ " a tinny version of the dreadnought's voice echoed over the scene, making the magicals all look around.

"I said stay the bloody hell up there!" Warspite snapped. "Young Shizuka and young Izumi were cautious when they flew their namesakes down here for whatever bloody reason possessed them to upset everyone's day like that...!"

" _Ashoi'cha, you may want to explain that to the Commanders Itō, much less Captain Itō_ ," the artificial intelligence in control of Her Majesty's Starship _Warspite_ gently cut her off. " _As of now, Tennō Heika Uchūkan-tachi_ Yamato _,_ Musashi _and_ Yonaga _are on close approach to airspace over Hogwarts and Hogsmeade. They have full counter-shields up to prevent ground radars from detecting them and are avoiding known travel corridors, but having FIVE starships so close to Hogwarts...!_ "

"What the bloody hell is that crazy samurai doing?!" Victory demanded as the magicals blinked, even if some of the muggleborns had looks of realization on their faces. "Last I heard over Shipgirl Central was that she had whisked away some mutinous constables out of Tomobiki when they tried to kill her junior pilot's grandnephew to get the poor lad's inheritance!"

" _They were all made to commit seppuku for their treason to His Imperial Majesty, Commodore, with Patriarch Moroboshi killing his maternal uncle_ ," came the response, which made many people wince. " _However, when Captain Itō learned that her sisters had come charging to Hogwarts without even telling ANYONE what they planned, she moved to confront them..._ "

Materializer beams then echoed over the scene, making people look over...

...before they gaped as four tall women appeared in showers of energy, three of them quite recognizable to Harry Potter even if the MUCH taller one between Japan's first two super-battleships was a total mystery.

Until Lizzy gaped at her.

" _ **SHE WHO SCARES THE DARK ONES?!**_ "

As many of the magicals gasped on hearing that term, multiple _pops!_ soon saw almost the whole of Hogwarts' house elves swarm around the seventh carrier of Operation Z, earning Yonaga a tonne of confused looks from everyone around her.

Harry blinked as he stared at the tall carrier. "Warship No. 797...?"

Ron gazed in confusion at him...

* * *

 _ **The Great Hall, two hours later...**_

Yonaga bowed her head. "Regent Lady Bones, I must sincerely apologize for my sisters' actions that caused such a disturbance here by bringing their starship namesakes to this ancient castle. They had no right to do such."

Amelia Bones chuckled as she returned that bow. "Please, Lady Yonaga, don't apologize. Your sisters did ask Chief Matron Lizzy to make use of the kitchens to create food that you could consume. They also cooked for everyone in the hall, even making enough seconds for everyone to enjoy Lady Shinano's pancakes. I must confess, that cloudberry jam topping Lady Izumi created was delicious." As many of the students seated at their house tables nodded in delight at that statement, the director of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement smiled. "Given how much they were concerned about your being forced to be very picky when it comes to replenishing yourself — despite all the advantages that cove you were trapped in for so long in Siberia gave you and your late crew — I would swear that both your sisters are true Hufflepuffs in heart!"

"Hear! Hear!" Master Auror Constance Hammer, Bones' deputy for this emergency call to Hogwarts — so made by many people in Hogsmeade who were no doubt STILL gaping at the FIVE starships in formation over their village — chanted.

The other aurors — Senior Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt and Auror Trainee Nymphadora Tonks — nodded. As students from Hufflepuff cheered that and Pomona Sprout laughed while she applauded that call, Yonaga sighed. She had heard a lot about the many eccentricities of British wand-magicals from Chennalton and her sisters, so this didn't surprise her. While they accepted there was no ill-intent on the parts of Shinano and Izumi when they came here, things still had to be addressed.

"I thank you for your forbearance, Regent Lady Bones," the carrier stated. "However, given the disturbance that even I and my elder sisters helped cause this day which still upsets all those living in Hogsmeade as we speak, things need to be resolved. Excuse me," she stated before turning around, redefining the concept of "glare" at her sisters. "Lieutenants."

Both Shinano and Izumi braced to attention. "Hai!"

"In English!" Yonaga snapped.

"Yes, Captain!"

"Your actions, while accepted by our gracious hosts, still caused a massive disturbance in the schedules of all the people in Hogwarts and Hogsmeade, not to mention these good people from Her Majesty's Ministry of Magic who were forced to come from their headquarters to investigate this incident. I'm sure the teachers will not be able to hold lessons today in the wake of what you two did. Therefore, you will properly APOLOGIZE to the students and the staff of Hogwarts AND the citizens of Hogsmeade AND these good law enforcement officials for causing such a disruption to their schedules. Understood?!"

"Yes, Captain!"

"That will be done by lunchtime today!"

"Yes, Captain!"

Yonaga nodded. "Since your elder sisters and myself can also be seen as guilty of causing this disruption, we too will also properly atone to everyone." As Shinano and Izumi both tensed, the carrier smirked. "Be calm, sisters," she scolded. "It does not require something as extreme as THAT. Do not let what happened at the Shrine of Infinite Salvation earlier guide your actions. You yourselves know how much Ataru-san needed that chance to seek justice for his mother's selfishness."

Both the younger Yamato-class shipgirls gulped before Shinano bowed her eyes. "It worries me, Onē-sama," she whispered. "I fear for both your karma and Ataru-san's karma. You don't know about what he was made to become on Okusei...!"

"I am aware of Keiseri's 'blessing', Shizuka-chan. Calm yourself."

Silence.

More silence.

Still more silence.

Then...

"You know of the _**Cyborg**_ , Oba-san?!"

That was a wide-eyed Harry Potter, who was looking in distress at the seventh carrier of Operation Z. "Shortly after I was transformed into what you see now, young admiral, I received the blessings of a being that once befriended Master Keiseri a hundred millennia ago," Yonaga stated as something seemed to shroud her with power that made the most sensitive of the magicals in the Great Hall all take a step back. "Much that his physical transformation repulses me, Ataru-san maintains a good head even when he is forced to don that armour as he did to save Roberta-san at Messina. You've seen what is emblazoned on his kote, have you not?" She pointed to the armoured strips under her hakama sleeves in emphasis.

Nagato's son nodded. "'Ai to Jijitsu'. 'Love and Fact', though it could also be said 'Love and Truth'. His statement against that oni bakayaro that nearly killed him a few times because she wanted to get away from that ushitora!"

Yonaga laughed as many of the magicals all gaped; a translation field set up by Albus Dumbledore in the Great Hall would allow them to understand the terms the people from Japan were using. "'Tiger-cow', Harry?" Draco Malfoy demanded.

"Oh, yeah, Drake!" Harry called back. "This guy looks even more handsome than that Gilderoy Lockhart guy who summoned Royal Sovereign back to duty...but believe me, man, this guy makes a TROLL like the one Hoppō-chan bopped on Hallowe'en seem SMART!" As people gaped in shock at him, Harry shook his head. "Even if Lum didn't want the jerk, he still kept chasing her, hurting Ataru-niichan all the time for 'stealing' her! I hope that dragon that crashed that wedding burned him poi!"

"Rest assured, young Harry, Negako-sama is now on Uru upbraiding that foolish girl and her friends for all their childish behaviour over the last year. We need not fear them again." Yonaga then sighed. "Oh, yes! I forgot..."

"I'll cook lunch for everyone today, Onē-sama," Yamato declared.

 _POP!_ Lizzy instantly appeared at the brown-haired super-battleship's feet. "Great Lady Yamato no does such things!" the elderly elf then scolded. "Much that Lizzy and castle elves understands why Lady Shinano and Lady Izumi wishes to makes sure that She Who Scares the Dark Ones is properly fed, cookings food is job for elves and not great sea spirits!"

Yonaga gave her a warning look. "Lizzy-dono, Yurie-sama is coming here."

Lizzy moved to object...before her eyes went as wide as the bore of the battleship's main guns. " _ **GREAT LADY YURIE COMES HERE?!**_ " she shrieked out. " _ **WE MUST CLEANS CASTLE BEFORE SHE COMES!**_ " _POP!_

As Dumbledore's jaw dropped, Musashi gazed at her sister. "How did you learn of what Yurie-sama is doing, Onē-san?"

Yamato blinked as her eyes teared. "His time is approaching, Mutsuko-chan..."

The other battleship's eyes went wide before she hissed. "I grieve with you!" she said as she squeezed Yamato's shoulder.

As Enterprise came over to warmly embrace her lover while Yamato tried not to break down and weep, Dumbledore sighed as many of the people in the hall bowed their heads on realizing what was going on and what was about to happen. As Rubeus Hagrid sobbed at the realization that such a wonderful person like Yamato was losing a friend like that, the headmaster straightened himself. "I join your sister in expressing my condolences, Commander Itō. I'm told that..." Here, he paused as he considered what to say, then he smiled. "The living spirit of the battleship that was there for your crew that awful day in 1945 is now in Onomichi as we speak." As Bones sent him a worried look, the headmaster gazed at Yonaga. "Much that I am technically breaking an edict of the Ministry of Magic for actually speaking of them to your sisters, as the Supreme Mugwump of the Confederation, I am also aware of a Magical Imperial Rescript issued in 1937 by your Heavenly Sovereign's late father that is STILL IN EFFECT, Captain. Given how much the deeds of the magicals who served in the _**First Canadian Battleship Squadron**_ and the _**Australia and New Zealand Battleship Squadron**_ have so marked those of you who were sunk in those horrible world wars, it is unjustly cruel in my eyes to keep you all in the dark about them when you already know so much."

Yamato gasped. "Kōchō-sensei! I don't want to cause trouble...!"

His eyes twinkled. "Let it be on MY head, Yasuko."

She blinked, then she perked as Yonaga asked, "This decree, Chief Warlock. Was it approved by Her Majesty?"

Dumbledore hummed, then shook his head. "Actually, no, I don't believe so."

"Then how, may I ask, can it be truthfully enforced legally?" the carrier asked as she spread her arms. "Previous holders of the office of Her Majesty's Minister for Magic _**always**_ allowed those who could be trusted with the secret of those ships and their mission to protect all from the sea kaijū they were built to hunt in the normal world to know of them, right from Lord Jellicoe and Lord Beatty at Jutland...or 'Second Dogger Bank' as my friends from Canada and their crews always call it."

"Admiral Jellicoe and Admiral Beatty KNEW?!" Warspite demanded.

"Hai, Charlene-san. They were in constant communication with Admiral William Harlan, then in command of the First Canadian Battleship Squadron. Admiral Harlan was also in communication with Admiral Scheer and Admiral Hipper."

Victory blinked. "Any relation to Rear Admiral Drake Harlan, Captain?"

"The younger Admiral Harlan is the elder's great-grandson, Commodore Nelson. He's a nimmib."

The two British shipgirls blinked, then Victory laughed. "That explains how fast the Canadians were in doing the summons of their fleet almost right after young Anne and her sisters saved Tōkyō at the end of Blood Week!"

"Since the ritual was based on something Master Hosan created, they had access to Dean Raeburn's records in Clayhurst," Dumbledore stated, earning him nods from the others. "Well, since _Chennalton_ is obviously coming with Mister Gen..."

"Is that her name?"

Eyes locked on Yamato, who looked ready to break down and cry. Yonaga's hand then squeezed her sister's shoulder. "Patricia Chennalton," the carrier stated as the older super-battleship gazed at her. "That is the one, Yasuko."

Yamato blinked before she slowly nodded, tears flowing down her cheek while Enterprise hugged her.

"I know her name now, Yvonne..."

She then smiled as Harry came over to add his hug. Seeing this, others in the hall nodded in sympathy...

* * *

 _ **Aboard Tennō Heika Uchūkan**_ **Yamato** _ **in hover-orbit over the Black Lake, lunchtime...**_

"I still fear this will reflect badly on you, Albus."

Albus Dumbledore smiled as he watched HMS _Warspite_ move to slip alongside the port beam of the Japanese star battleship on whose quarterdeck behind Turret #3 most of everyone from Hogwarts now stood on. "It may, Minerva, but given the times our friends from Canada have been forced to remind people in our ministry about the laws of the land, I think this is necessary. Besides, you've heard how much shipgirls have spoken of Erin and her friends. It could distract them from their duties."

Minerva McGonagall took that in before sighing. "I pray you're right..."

A boatswain's call then shrilled the still as a laser gangway connected the quarterdecks of the two starships. The collected students of Hogwarts all then stiffened on seeing the elderly gentleman in the uniform of an admiral of the fleet in the Royal Navy step across from _Warspite_ to board _Yamato_. Following him was Warspite the shipgirl, now dressed as a full commander in the Royal Navy even if she still walked on her cane and wore her special shoes. People quieted down as Yamato the shipgirl formally received the Prince of Wales while his banner for Scotland was raised on one of the larger starship's foremast lines.

"A delight to see you again, Commander Itō," the heir to the British throne declared.

Yamato formally bowed. She was in her dress uniform as a commander in the Maritime Self-Defence Force, with her lover at her side in her dress uniform as a commander in the United States Navy. "An honour, Denka-sama! Welcome aboard the _Yamato_." She then giggled. "I trust it wasn't too difficult to come here," she then calmly stated.

"Materializers do make it very easy," the man who was also known as the Duke of Rothesay in Scotland noted as he exchanged looks with a giggling Warspite. "I can't express my sympathies enough at your pending loss."

A faint smile crossed her face. "It's his time, Denka-sama. He's lived his life and wants to be with his shipmates again. I'm so glad Patricia-sensei is willing to help out as her crew did my crew and my friends' crews in 1945."

The visiting royal looked around her to see the bright and eager faces of the one light cruiser and the eight destroyers who had accompanied Yamato on her last mission to Okinawa. Of course, their starship namesakes were now in a protective formation around the star battleship, with THU _Yahagi_ ahead of _Yamato_ ; there was enough room on the latter's starboard side to allow HMCS _Chennalton_ to pull alongside with her most honoured guests. "You girls excited?!" he called out.

The destroyers all cheered. "We wouldn't miss this for the world, Teitoku!" Yukikaze eagerly called out.

"Yukiko-chan!" Yamato squawked.

The Prince of Wales laughed. "That's enough, Yasuko! Little Yukiko's entitled to feel happy today, so she's entitled to her mistakes! As with the rest of you as well!" he called out to Yahagi and the other destroyers.

" _ **HAI, TEITOKU!**_ " they all chanted as they saluted him.

As many of the students from Hogwarts cheered in echo of such enthusiasm, a voice called out over the ship's loudspeaker system, "Thoughtmistress-prime, the _Chennalton_ is now on approach to come alongside, astern to starboard."

Everyone immediately turned to look...

"Sugoi!" Fuyutsuki breathed out.

"The stupid kaijū were dumb to try to fight THAT!" Hatsushimo noted.

"And all the others, too!" Suzutsuki added.

Watching the starship version of the longest of Canada's magical battleships, Yamato tried not to shudder as her breath caught in her throat while such a gorgeous ship slowly came up alongside her namesake's hull. Shaped like a mixture of a Littorio-class and an Iowa-class in hull and superstructure, Her Majesty's Canadian Starship _Chennalton_ — and her surface warship namesake, Yamato knew — was a twin-funnel giant that seemed to project both power and speed from every hull plate. With four gunhouses in the standard two-forward/two-aft arrangement of most modern battleships, each gunhouse bearing FOUR of the same model of naval rifle design New Jersey and her sisters possessed, the Canadian battleship had the heaviest broadside of any capital warship in history, outranking a Yamato-class' full weight by _**fifty percent**_. Yet despite the black hull with the white **49** under the bridge and her upperworks done in a dark haze grey similar to how American warships were coloured, the sight of that red maple leaf on the second funnel and the beautiful Canadian White Ensign now flying from the mainmast made Yamato stiffen as new resolve filled her body and hull. No! She would NEVER disgrace herself, not before THIS one! Knowing half of her "dead" had been saved by Chennalton's crew during Operation: Ten-gō...

"This is the first time this is being done in 'public', Yasuko. Do well."

Hearing Yonaga's words, Yamato nodded. "I am Yamato, Onē-sama. I need no reminders."

The carrier curtly nodded as Enterprise squeezed her lover's hand. "Good."

" _ **KA-...MI-...CHU!**_ "

Hearing the voice of the human goddess who now stood on _Chennalton_ 's quarterdeck echo over the scene — she dressed in the beautiful robes of her station as Onomichi-no-Yurie — everyone braced themselves as a titanic wave of energy flared from the Canadian starship to encompass all the surrounding starships in an aura of beautiful energy. As people turned to look, they then gasped on seeing the virtual SEA of kami now on _Chennalton_ 's quarterdeck. "Oh, Merlin!" McGonagall gasped while many of the Hogwarts students hissed and whispered to each other. "Are those ALL the spirits that haunt Onomichi?!"

"Indeed they are, Minerva," Dumbledore breathed out.

"If those who still think they can bring Japan down ever saw THAT...!" Severus Snape dryly observed.

"You're right about that, Severus," Hagrid mused.

"Ah! Yasuko-san! Yvonne-san! Yaeko-san! Minna!"

Everyone looked...

...then the Japanese shipgirls save Yonaga whooped as a laughing arahitogami came across the laser gangway connection the two starships. As soon as she stepped onto _Yamato_ , Hitotsubashi Yurie ran over to embrace the the starship's shipgirl namesake. "Yasuko-san!" she called out as all the destroyers screamed in delight at the two old friends reuniting.

" _ **TO YURIE-SAMA! BANZAI!**_ " Yukikaze screamed out.

" _ **BANZAI! BANZAI! BANZAI!**_ " the other destroyers chanted at the proper cadence.

Yurie blushed madly at that salute while the crowd on the quarterdeck applauded. She then took a deep breath as she gazed on Yamato. "He almost left us just as we were coming here, Yasuko-san," she quietly reported. "Patricia-sensei put him into stasis so he can live long enough to come here, but he won't be able to stay here much longer once the stasis is removed."

As Yahagi and the destroyers all gasped on hearing that, Yamato nodded before she gazed on the dark-haired woman in the formal mess dress waiting at the other end of the gangway. "Captain Chennalton! Please bring Chief Gen aboard!"

"Aye-aye, Commander Itō!"

Everyone tensed as a floating gurney came across from _Chennalton_ in the wake of her shipgirl namesake, it bearing the still form of an elderly man in his nineties, his breathing very slow even if there was still colour on that weather-beaten face. Escorting Chief Petty Officer Gen Kiyonobu on both sides were Yurie's friends Saegusa Matsuri and Shijō Mitsue in proper shrine miko uniforms, with Matsuri's sister Miko and Yurie's boyfriend Ninomiya Kenji following, they escorted by Yashima, the older guardian kami of Onomichi. Behind them were eight people in the uniforms of the Royal Canadian Sea Cadets: One petty officer 1st class in command of the detail, one master seaman with a bugle, one master seaman carrying a rolled flag and five junior cadets. Other kami, yōkai and yūrei who had come from Japan to be there when Gen rejoined his old shipmates floated across the small gap between the two star battleships, making many of the British magicals gape at such a display.

Once at the edge before stepping aboard, Chennalton paused to salute the Kyokujitsu-ki flying off the ensign staff. She then exchanged salutes with Yamato. "Permission to come aboard, Commander?" the former asked.

"Permission granted, Captain," the latter answered.

Chennalton stepped aboard, then moved aside as the gurney was floated over onto the Japanese starship. Seeing the light smile on her old crewman's face as the detail of Sea Cadets saluted while they came aboard, Yamato could only beam even if her eyes were misty with tears. She then looked a question at the Canadian battleship. "Once the stasis is removed, you'll have about three minutes, Yasuko," Chennalton then warned. "He wants to see his friends again."

"Arigatō, Patricia-sensei," Yamato said with a bow of her head. "Please place him at the middle of the quarterdeck."

"Aye-aye, Commander!" the cadet petty officer said with a salute. "Detail, form escort party!" she then barked out.

The other cadets fell into place, with the bugler up front. The petty officer then ordered the party to slow-march the gurney to a point right under the central muzzle of the aft main turret, with Yamato, her sisters and her lovers following. Everyone watching this fell silent as the cadets marked time while they shuffled into place, then the bugler called, "Detail...HALT!" As the other cadets stopped, she then barked for everyone to turn inwards to face the dying veteran of World War Two.

Once that was done, the master seaman with the flag allowed his wand to fall into his free hand, then he twirled it to let the colours unfold, revealing a beautiful Kyokujitsu-ki. The other cadets used their wands to allow the flag to be properly tucked under the gurney, keeping Gen's face uncovered. Watching this, Harry Potter gaped in shock. "They're...?"

Hermione Granger shushed him. "Students from the Institute of Sorcery and Magic," the dentist's daughter from Crawley near London whispered. "There are Sea Cadet corps named after all the ships of the First Squadron based there."

Harry took that in, then he nodded as the petty officer ordered the detail to step three paces back from the gurney. She then saluted Yamato. Once that was done, Chennalton made a motion with her hand, allowing Gen to gasp as his eyes fluttered open. As people hushed in silence while many from Hogwarts instantly stiffened as they sensed what was about to happen, the old engineer's eyes focused on the beautiful arahitogami born from the living spirit of his beloved ship. A smile that showed he was fully at peace then crossed his face. "Yasuko-san..." he breathed out even if his heart was now stopping.

Yamato came over to kneel to his right, with Enterprise behind her. "I'm here, Kiyonobu-san..."

"Yes..." he said with a sigh, then he looked at the Canadian battleship standing at his feet. "Patricia-san..." he slowly whispered. "So nice...both of you...are finally together..." He gazed on Enterprise. "Yvonne-san...you're here, too..."

The American carrier nodded. "I could never stay away, Chief."

He faintly nodded. "Is...Yoiko-san here...?"

Yonaga walked over to stand opposite her sister. "I am here, Kiyonobu-san. Don't fight it anymore. Your friends are waiting."

Gen blinked, then he smiled as he finally saw the many who had served and died on THG _Yamato_ in decades past appear before his vision. As all of the kami seeing this bowed their heads in respect, his eyes then closed forever.

"Still...the most beautiful..."

Silence then fell. Yamato blinked as Enterprise squeezed her shoulders in support, then she smiled as she reached over to pull the flag over Gen's contently smiling face. As quiet sobs escaped some of the normal people from Onomichi at the final passing of such a wonderful man, Chennalton nodded to the bugler. Enterprise and Musashi helped Yamato return to attention. "Sound the Last Post, Master Seaman!" the Canadian battleship called out in a clear voice.

"Aye, ma'am!" he said before placing the instrument to his lips.

Everyone drew off their headgear before the solemn tones of the famous salute for fallen comrades echoed all over Hogwarts. Unseen by those now on _Yamato_ 's deck, creatures in the Forbidden Forest and the people in Hogsmeade all stopped to gaze up at the Japanese star battleship, they all sensing what was happening even if most did not understand the exact reasons such a sad song was being played. As the ensigns on all starships were lowered to half-staff, everyone remained silent even if some of the people from Hogwarts were tempted to raise their wands in proper salute to the dead, even if they didn't know who he really was save being an elderly friend of the beautiful teenage goddess now standing next to Chennalton.

Once the last notes died away, Chennalton's voice echoed over the scene:

 _They shall grow not old,  
_ _As we that are left grow old.  
_ _Age shall not weary them,  
_ _Nor the years condemn.  
_ _At the going down of the Sun  
_ _And in the morning,  
_ _We will remember them..._

Everyone tensed as the ghostly images of Yamato's lost crew appeared briefly among them...including a smiling Gen Kiyonobu, now looking as young as the day he first stepped aboard the world's first normal super-battleship. Gazing on all those who still lived and those kami and others who had been there for their just-returned shipmate, the crew then stood to attention, turning and saluting the living. As many girls from Hogwarts began to sob at such a sight, Yonaga spoke up:

 _As the stars that shall be bright  
_ _When we are dust,  
_ _Moving in marches  
_ _Upon the Heavenly Plain;  
_ _As the stars that are starry  
_ _In the time of our darkness,  
_ _To the end,  
_ _To the end,  
_ _They remain..._

 _ **To Be Continued...**_

* * *

 **WRITER'S NOTES**

Translation list: **dataPADD** — Data Personal Archival Display Device; **Daitōryō** — President (of a nation-state); **ryi'Kouhae-Raikue** — Literally "Child of Kouhae and Raikue"; **Kimei'aidoei** — Literally "fucking half-life", this is the lowest insult one can use on Sagussa; **En** — Yes; **Ashi'cha** — Elder Mother; **Marei'cha** — Literally "the one with whom one raises a child", this is the equivalent of a spouse in a married family on Sagussa; **Te'a** — Literally "That Which Is Above mortal understanding", a metaphysical; energy field permeating all that exists which is similar in concept to the **Force** in _Star Wars_ ; **-tachi** — The Japanese equivalent of the plural "s" ending in English; **Kote** — A warrior's vambrace (forearm guard armour); **Kōchō-sensei** — Principal/Headmaster of a school; **Nimmib** — A phonetic reading of NMMB ("non-magical magic-born"), the Canadian "politically correct" term for a squib; **Denka** — Honorific used for a prince or princess; **Kyokujitsu-ki** — The "rising sun" war flag of the Imperial Japanese Navy and the Maritime Self-Defence Force.

The concept of **Masatada Hinano** was first introduced in my first _Seventh Carrier_ story, _The Angels of the Era of Eternity_.

 _Urusei Yatsura_ and related stories' minor character notes:

 **Ōgi ot'ndai-Zkuhsbagh** first appeared in _The Senior Year_ story "What Price For Love?" This is also the story where **Fangi t'ndai-Marthon** first appeared.

 **Aruka Noa** (based on the character **Izumi Noa** from _Patlabor_ ) first appeared in the _TSY_ story "Tag Race Mark Three"; her name is introduced in "Spirit-War Tomobiki". The incident where **Moroboshi Ataru** and **Redet Lum** first encountered Sagussa's elder mother was shown in "Noa".

 **Lufy Wellington** (based on the character **Lufy** from _Gall Force_ ) first appeared in "Spirit-War Tomobiki".

 **Kouhae** and **Raikue** first appeared in the _TSY_ story "My Darlings United". This story is also where the **Majujjō** were first mentioned.

 **Nassur** and **Cinba** first appeared in the _TSY_ story "Return of Memory". Nassur's father **Ninsur** was first mentioned in "Nassur's Story".

 **Miree ot'ndai-Bohgar** first appeared in _Lonely Souls_.

 **Skelad Lara** and her father **Skelad Slan** first appeared in the _TSY_ story "Towards the Unstoppable Future".

 **Chara** of Kutzei first appeared in the _TSY_ story "Darling's Other Girlfriend".

The issue concerning **HMS** _ **Royal Sovereign**_ ( **Stefánija Lévchenko** ) and her being summoned by **Gilderoy Lockhart** was first written about in Harry Leferts' _Harry Potter and the Shipgirls_ snippet collection at SpaceBattles. The specific short where the lead of her class of battleships was summoned was the second one written by **AkumaOuja**.

 **Gen Kiyonobu** (his given name is my invention) first appeared in the ninth episode of _Kamichu!_ , "Crossing the River of Time".

The poem _**For the Fallen**_ , whose stanzas are read at the end of this part by **HMCS** _ **Chennalton**_ ( **Patricia Chennalton** ) and **THG** _ **Yonaga**_ ( **Itō Yoiko** ), is best known today as the **Ode of Remembrance**. Used during ceremonies marking **Remembrance Day** (11 November) in the nations of the Commonwealth (not to mention **Anzac Day** [25 April] in Australia and New Zealand), the third stanza (the part Chennalton speaks) is always spoken out either before or after _The Last Post_ is played to herald a minute's silence in honour of the dead of the World Wars. The stanza Yonaga reads at the end is the final part of the poem.

The human names of shipgirls introduced or mentioned in this part:

 _ **JAPAN  
**_ (ship prefix **THG** [ **Tennō Heika Gunkan** ] ["Warship of His Majesty the Heavenly Sovereign"])  
 **THG Yahagi** — Ōkawa Yaeko  
 **THG Isokaze** — Yuhara Izumi  
 **THG Hamakaze** — Yuhara Hama  
 **THG Asashimo** — Kumasaka Asami  
 **THG Kasumi** — Akatsuka Kasumi  
 **THG Yukikaze** — Yuhara Yukiko  
 **THG Fuyutsuki** — Fukuyama Furui  
 **THG Suzutsuki** — Akiyama Suzumi  
 **THG Hatsushimo** — Haruguchi Hatsuyo

 _ **UNITED KINGDOM  
**_ (ship prefix **HMS** [ **Her Majesty's Ship** ])  
 **HMS Victory** — Catharine Ann "Vicky" Nelson  
 **HMS Warspite** — Charlene Victoria Boleyn  
 **HMS Royal Sovereign** — Stefánija Gordéjovna Lévchenko

 _ **UNITED STATES  
**_ (ship prefix **USS** [ **United States Ship** ])  
 **USS South Dakota** — Dakota Leigh Gatch


End file.
